Just Hanging On
by Full Of Beans
Summary: Four best friends taking on Hogwarts with all its troubles and drama, but when everything falls apart in a terrible accident, how will they all survive?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first ever fanfiction so I hope you like it. The next chapter will be better I promise. Thankyou for taking the time to read this!**

**ENJOY! **

As Albus stumbled down the hall on the Hogwarts express he looked inside each compartment. He saw that most had a group of people in them but there were some at the end of the hall with no one in them so he headed up there. He was going to sit with Rose and James and his cousins but he already spent enough time with them at home.

When he finally got to the end of the carriage he found that the last compartments had been taken up by large groups of students already. His only options were to either go back to his family or sit with the blonde boy who took up the last compartment.

He knew he couldn't go back to them so he bundled up his courage and knocked on the door before sliding it open. The boy looked about Albus' age and had platinum blonde hair, silver eyes and pale skin.

"May I sit here?" Albus said quietly and after he didn't reply he continued quickly with

"Sorry, there is just nowhere see to sit."

"Yes of course. I should be sorry, I was just a little shocked someone would bother sitting with me." the boy replied.

Albus smiled and sat down opposite the boy.

"I'm guessing you're a Malfoy. Couldn't miss that blonde hair anywhere" Albus joked.

"Well your guess would be correct then. I'm Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, and I'm guessing you're a Potter." Scorpius returned the smile.

"You're completely right. I am in fact Albus Severus Potter and I am very pleased to meet you Scorpius." Albus' right hand shot out, Scorpius grasped it quickly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Albus" said Scorpius as they shook hands.

"It's good to meet you too, oh and you can call me Al."

After their initial introduction the pair started talking.

"What are you most afraid of?" asked Scorpius leaning towards his dark hair companion.

"Boggarts." he replied plainly.

"They only _show _what you're most afraid of, that doesn't tell me anything." Scorpius whined when he heard Albus' response, "Ok, what's your favourite animal?"

"Not telling." Al crossed his arms over his chest and turned up his nose.

"Why not?" Scorpius asked with a wave of confusion passing through him.

"Because I don't want to." Albus sounded slightly annoyed that Scorpius was so persistent.

"And there isn't a thing you can do to make me tell you."

"Is that a challenge I hear? I think thats a challenge. I guess I'll just have to tickle out the truth." Scorpius said and his mouth split into a massive grin.

"No, no, no, no-" said Albus putting his hands up in front of his chest as Scorpius came towards him but he was quickly cut off by his own shrieks of laughter escaping him as Scorpius tickled him. Albus started to tickle Scorpius back and it seemed to work because they were both now laughing loudly as tears streamed down their faces and they writhed on the floor trying to get away from each other.

They were so caught up in their tickle fight that they didn't even notice the two figures slide open the sliding door. They were a pair of girls. The first with inky black hair that went most of the way down her back and dark blue eyes with golden flecks in them. She had skin the colour of caramel that contrasted amazingly with her white singlet. The second was almost the opposite. Her light blonde hair went a few centimetres over her elbow and her fringe covered one of her shining green eyes, this girl had skin that looked almost white against the mahogany wood of the doorway.

When the boys heard a sudden cough and looked up to find the girls with smirks on their faces, they scrambled to their feet quickly.

"Hello, may we sit in here? We got kicked out of the other compartment for…" the blonde girl said but left the rest of the sentence for the other to finish.

"mucking around" said the second girl vaguely.

"Oh by the way, my name is Skyler Dervish. This is Monica Brookston." said the girl with green eyes.

The boys returned to their seats and waited for the girls to sit down, but when they didn't make a move Al realised they hadn't answered the question yet.

"Of course you can, I'm Albus." Albus said with a smile.

"Hello Albus" Monica said returning the smile and taking a seat next to him.

Skyler sat down next to the other boy and leant closer.

"and what may I ask, is your name?" she said raising an eyebrow.

"Scorpius actually. Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy." said Scorpius sticking out his hand.

"I can tell you're a pureblood" replied Skyler with a small smile.

"I'm a Malfoy, of course I am." Scorpius said looking at his nails.

They all laughed at Scorpius' ridiculous hand gesture.

In the next few hours they got to know each other better and decided they would stick together.

They finally arrived at Hogwarts and were greeted by a giant man with a beard who was named Hagrid. The group then shared a boat across the lake to get to the castle.

Albus was amazed when he entered the immense structure and bumped into Skyler causing her to trip. Luckily Scorpius caught her and helped her to her feet.

"Al! Watch it! You're so damn clumsy!" she laughed and pushed his shoulder.

Monica pulled Skyler away from the boys and started whispering on the edge of the crowd of first year students on the way to the great hall.

In the great hall the sorting ceremony commenced after the headmistress Mcgonagall.

As the first student was called up there was silence. Then cheering from their house.

"Brookston, Monica" called the Professor.

Monica took in a sharp breath and walked towards the stool.

As the hat was placed on her head she glanced to her friends, then at the Slytherin table, then back to the three children looking terrified in the middle of the mass of first years.

After a few minutes of tense silence the hat bellowed "SLYTHERIN". Monica's face lit up and there was an explosion of cheering and shouting from the Slytherin table.

She shot a quick smile at her friends and sat down at the table on the far side of the room.

Skyler was next. The hat knew instantly she was a Slytherin but she made the hat wait a long time, just to build tension. By the time she took her seat next to Monica she had a pure Slytherin smirk plastered on her pale face.

There were a lot of students sorted into houses before Scorpius Malfoy stepped up. A wave of whispers swept over the hall as he had the hat placed onto his head.

"Hello Mr Malfoy, it has been a while since I've seen a Malfoy around here." said the sorting hat quietly to Scorpius "Now let me see, you're terribly different from your father aren't you? I can see you're a quite intelligent one as well, but you're also loyal but I can see you will do excellently in the house of Slytherin. Good luck my boy."

At last "SLYTHERIN!" was bellowed from the hat.

As Scorpius waltzed over to the table he winked at his two friends already seated there. Monica just laughed at the girls glaring at them jealously from all the other tables as well as their own, Skyler meanwhile winked back at him.

He sat down beside Skyler and turned back to the next student to get onto the stool.

After a while it was Albus' turn.

"A Potter! Oh yes! I know you'd be a great Gryffindor… but I can tell that isn't your true place is it? You aren't the type to rush into something too quickly… I think I know where you'd fit perfectly my dear boy. It was a pleasure Mr Potter, have a good time at Hogwarts." said the old hat quietly.

Albus had his eyes closed just hoping he would end up with his friends and when he heard the word "SLYTHERIN" he was overjoyed and as soon as the sorting hat was no longer residing on his head he shot over to the table to a spot next to Scorpius. The four of them shared a high-five and then returned their gazes to the others to get sorted.

After the sorting the table were topped with mountains of food. All of the first years looked at it all with absolute awe.

"I already love it here." said Skyler staring at the masses of food on the table with wide eyes. With that said she grabbed her fork and covered her plate with food. "I think this will be a sufficient amount of food to satisfy me."

Albus and Scorpius watched in amazement, they didn't even think it was possible that two girls so small could eat so much food. The boys were shovelling food in all the while mind you.

When the girls finished their plates they talked about how great it would be to be away from their families for so long. Skyler talked about how she hated being restricted to stay in the grounds of her families manor. She only had Monica as her friend since birth and Albus thought that was a bit sad because he had had all of his cousins around him his whole life.

"Really?" mumbled Al with a mouth full of potato "I've always had heaps of cousins and siblings around, along with their friends"

"Everything is going to change now, Hogwarts is going to make life excellent!" Monica was looking around the great hall as she said this and saw a boy looking at her from the Ravenclaw table. She was shocked at first but then she looked at him properly. The boy had dark skin and blue eyes. She started to blush as he winked, then he smirked at her and turned away.

When she looked back at her friends they seemed absorbed in their own conversation so she fixed her robes and tried to wipe the blush off her face.

The feast finally finished and they were lead to their common room by a prefect.

"The password is parseltongue" said the tall dark haired boy impatiently. He rushed into the common room soon after telling them, he didn't seem too pleased about having to deal with the first years. When they got inside there was a collective gasp from the whole group and the prefect leading them quickly told them about the dorms and rushed off to his own.

"He looked like he was in a rush" Scorpius said looking after the person rushing up the stairs as if to get as far away as possible so he could avoid questions.

"Yeah, I don't think he likes first years very much. Well Monica and I are going to see who our new roommates are, meet back here in say…. ten minutes?" Skyler said looking between the two boys.

"Ok, see you soon. We may as well see who we'll be stuck with then I guess." Albus waved to the girls and grabbed Scorpius by the wrist to yank him up the stairs.

~~~in the girls room~~~

Skyler jumped on the bed closest to the door and Monica planted herself on the next one over. Monica was about to speak when a girl with brown hair came out of the bathroom. When she noticed the two sitting on the beds she froze to the spot.

"Oh hello, I didn't think others would be up here so soon." she looked confused "Sorry, that was terribly rude of me. My name is Kailee Wzorek" she then moved closer and smiled warmly. She was tall and had chocolate brown eyes with long eyelashes. Her skin was tanned and her only blemishes, if you could even call them that, were a bundle of freckles on her nose.

"Oh its fine, we just thought we might want to claim our beds before other people came up" Skyler moved over and patted the bed next to her.

Monica gave her a little wave, "I'm Monica and this is Skyler"

Kailee laughed and sat next to Skyler on the squishy bed, "That's my bed over near the other wall, but I think I might move to that one to be closer to you guys. You seem pretty cool. Do you know any of the other girls yet?"

"Awesome! You don't seem so bad yourself" Skyler winked and continued "And we don't know any other girls yet. The only people we know is Scorpius and Albus, and they're both boys."

Kailee suddenly leant closer and said in a quiet voice: "Are either of them cute?"

Monica and Skyler burst into fits of laughter. The brown haired girl looked very confused and a bit scared. "WHAT?" she kept saying really loudly. Once the girls got over their fits they composed themselves and tried to explain.

"That's absolutely absurd! I don't even…." Skyler trailed off.

"Well you can decide that for yourself, we have to met them in the common room now anyway. And we better hurry, they're probably already waiting for us." Monica said before yanking a grey jacket from her trunk near the wall and putting it on her bed so no one would take it, " you two should probably do the same. We don't want our beds to be taken."

After they did the same the trio rushed down the stairs, Kailee eager to meet the two boys they'd talked about.

~~~in the boys dorm~~~

Scorpius and Albus were pushing and shoving all the way up the stairs but when they got to the door they just stopped before looking at each other and entering the room slowly.

There was already two other boys laying around chatting at the beds near the door who fell silent when they realised there was others entering. The first was tall and slender with dark skin and blue eyes. The second had longish black hair with a purple streak in the back. One of his eyes were green and the other blue and he seemed to have this permanent happy look on his face, not necessarily a smile but he looked happy.

"Hello boys, I'm Mason. This is Blade." The boy with the mis-matched eyes said as he gestured to the taller lean boy "Your beds are over there." He then pointed to the beds near the bathroom.

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you all" said Scorpius in his pureblood way, "My name is Scorpius and this is Albus. Wait I think I know you Blade…yeah my father is friends with yours."

"I remember you, you're that Malfoy kid. I like you, you're alright." Blade replied.

"Join us" said Mason as he waved them over. When they sat down on the end of Mason's bed he continued, mostly staring at the ceiling but glancing at them every so often. "So boys, know any of the girls yet?" Mason gave both the boys a wink that was was met by a strange expression on both occasions. His smile instantly disappeared and was replaced by a frown. "Don't look at me like that, it was just a simple question and I'd rather like it if you'd answer me."

"Sorry" said Albus in a small voice, "I was just thinking about what I could say."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Mason just looked plain confused now.

"Well, we're sort of like best friends with two girls. There is Skyler and then Monica. They're both really nice, you should come and meet them in a little while. We're due back there any minute." Scorpius explained and Mason started to lose his confusion.

"Are they cute?" Blade asked from the other bed. This comment made the two boys blush furiously and forced their eyes to the ground. "What? Do you like them or something?" Blade smirked at the silent children. "You two are adorable" Albus mumbled something about having to get back to the girls. "We'll join you" Blade got up and followed them out of the room still sporting his smirk.

~~~ in the common room ~~~

Monica and Kailee rushed down the stairs and got to the common room first. As they took a step into the common room they heard a small squeak from behind them, but they didn't have to wait to long to find out what had happened. In an instant Skyler appeared at their feet looking pretty sore. She groaned loudly before slowly beginning to get up.

"How'd you manage to do that?" Monica laughed.

"I don't even know! I was just chillin', ya know, walking down the stairs minding my own business when BAM! The floor decided it want to get better acquainted!" She threw her arms around dramatically as she spoke, while Monica and Kailee had finally burst into proper fits of laughter. Skyler looked around the common room and discovered half of the students had just seen her 'OH SO GRACEFUL' fall down the stairs and were now in fits of laughter. She blushed at all the attention then continued her search for the two boys. When she found them they were just coming down from their dorms. She walked towards the boys and realised two boys trailed behind.

"Who's she, and why is she paying attention to you not me?" Mason whispered to Scorpius. He saw Scorpius smile and wave slightly as the girl came closer.

"Hey Scorpius!" she called from halfway across the common room. When she got to them she quickly moved to whisper something to the platinum blonde boy, "who are they?" she pulled him slightly away from the others but shot them all a smile before doing so.

"That's Mason and Blade. They're boys from our dorm nothing special really, they were just asking about you girls so we thought we'd bring them down to meet you" Scorpius explained. When she dragged him back to the group the others had already joined their little party of now seven.

"Oh and why is most of Slytherin laughing like there's no tomorrow?" Blade said to Monica.

"Skyler fell down the stairs!" Monica smirked and laughed, "Sorry Skyler but it was just so funny." Skyler glared at her friend. The group giggled and laughed while Skyler turned the colour of a cherry.

"It wasn't even that bad… stop laughing at me guys." She muttered staring at the floor. "I know!" she said after a while, loud enough to get the groups attention, "We should play truth or dare" a sinister sparkle glinted in her eyes.

"Lets do it. Lets play. It will be fun." Kailee said with confidence. With that they filed over to a deep green couch surrounded by beanbags, and when they were all comfortable Monica started.

"Truth or dare?" Monica said to Blade earning a wink.

"You know I'm going to choose Dare." He looked at her as if she should have known even though they'd met 5 minutes ago.

"Hmmmm…. well…." she stroked her chin thoughtfully and looked at him before leaning over and whispering something to him. "Now everyone close your eyes." the group obeyed. Suddenly Mason felt Blade's lips on his cheek and made a small yelping noise. Everyones eyes shot open instantly and it dawned on all of them what the dare had been. The next person to go was Skyler. She had to go sit next to a fourth year and start a conversation. Then someone did truth. It was Al.

"Did you think you'd ever be friends with a bunch of Slytherins? AND a Malfoy?"

"Never, I won't be getting a very warm welcome from the Gryffindors thats for sure!" He laughed.

"I think you mean Gryffindorks!" Mason piped up, the comment made the whole group burst into laughter.

The game went for about an hour before they had to go to bed. In that hour someone had to act like an ape, another had to start a conversation with a bunch of fourth years.

After the game finished the group spilt and went off to their separate dormitories. A good night sleep would serve them well for the things they're sure to get up to at Hogwarts.

**Review if you please! Tell me if you like it, or even if you don't I WILL LOVE YOU ANYWAY!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I was ecstatic when the first chapter actually got views! I hope you like this one, they are now in fifth year by the way, and my grammar is terrible. **

**ENJOY!**

"I can't we've been friends for four years already!" Monica said as the group of four teens boarded the train. It used to be bigger. Kailee got a boyfriend at the end of the year and they hadn't really seen her since, other than in the dorms. Mason was still their friend and so was Blade but they just weren't as close anymore.

"Yeah, to think this group has survived four years even though theres been so much drama, with Kailee and all." Albus said from next the black haired girl. The conversation continued on how the girls were never the best of friends friends with her anyway, she was just there so they wouldn't have to hang around only boys. After that topic came the fact that they could join the quidditch team that year because all the seventh years on the team had graduated and all the sixth years from last year had started to focus on their N.E.W.T.S.

"I'm trying out for seeker, I'm way better on a broom than that Enid Griffiths girl on the Gryffindor team" said Skyler.

"Al and I are trying out for the beaters. They've both quit apparently." Scorpius was laying on Skylers legs and looking from her to Monica as he said this. Monica raised an eyebrow at the position they were in. Scorpius laying on her legs while she gently played with his silky hair. Not the best position to be in while trying to make sure everyone knew they were just friends. Since someone came up to Scorpius before the holidays and asked if the two were dating they'd been trying to make sure everyone knew nothing was going on but the other two didnt think they knew how to do that after being such close friends for so long.

"Anything off the trolley?" an old shrill voice called from the entrance to the compartment. Albus got some Bertie Botts Beans and a sugar quill. Monica got one sugar quill and a pumpkin juice. Scorpius and Skyler both got a chocolate frog. Then before the lady went there was a chorus of thank you's.

Scorpius sat up and opened his frog. When he got to the card he laughed a little. "I got your dad Albus! What a coincidence!" Albus threw a bean at him and Scorpius caught it expertly. "My skills prevail against your barbaric attempts Potter!" He shoved the bean in his mouth and leaned over to see what Skyler had gotten.

Before he could see who she had she said: "I didn't know your father had his own card." Shocked silence spread through the compartment.

"I don't think he knows either.." Scorpius murmured after a few minutes. He grabbed the card to look at it and was surprised to find a laughing Draco Malfoy staring at him, after the laughing ceased a smile still lingered on his face. Draco was usually smiling when he was at home but he had never seen the man laugh as much as he had on that card, although it was a relief to see him laughing.

"You should send it to your dad." Skyler said over his shoulder

"No, I couldn't. It belongs to you and I know you love to collect them." Scorpius replied still staring dazedly at the card.

"Well yeah… but at least tell him about it or you could get him to send it back or something." Scorpius flashed her a small smile. "Either way, keep it for now"

Monica swiftly kicked Albus off the seat and waved Skyler over to sit next to her. Albus sent her a mock hurt look and took up the newly vacant seat next to Scorpius.

"Get over it princess." said Skyler dumping herself next to Monica.

"Wow wah wee wah" came from Monica and made everyone giggle.

Near the end of the bus trip the boys were forced outside so the girls could get changed and they started talking.

"Do you like Skyler? Because it seems as if you do… a lot" Albus leant against the door.

"Uhh no…" replied Scorpius, looking at the ground with intense concentration.

"We both know you're lying, Scorp. If you don't want to talk about it now, thats fine but I will talk to you about it again… and you _will _admit it" Albus didn't talk anymore and neither did Scorpius.

After a while Al said loudly: "Ok girls, get clothes on or something we're coming back in."

Albus pushed into the room just as Skyler started to button up her shirt. When she realised they were coming in she abruptly turned to the window instead of the wall. Monica on the other hand was already reaching for her tie by the time they got in there. Skyler sat down and grabbed her tie and started to put it around her neck.

"I haven't done this for ages." Skyler looked up and smiled "Ok, cross, under, over, under again and through the hole. YES!"

"Too bad its way to short" laughed Al as he pointed from across the compartment. "Get your robes and give me your tie. I thought girls were supposed to be organised" Albus grabbed the tie from around her neck and slid it off. Skyler frowned and grabbed her robes.

Meanwhile Scorpius was helping Monica into her robes and they were chatting about how good the year was going to be. Scorpius also brought up the topic of pets, Monica's cat Silky more specifically. She'd had him since first year and he'd always been an amazing cat but he'd become sick over the holidays and died. She had a new cat, Mo Mo, but she had let Lily Potter and her friends look after it for the train ride. Scorpius meanwhile had an owl named Ternex and he was flying to the school with Al's owl Lopulus.

"Where's Comet?" said Scorpius to the blonde girl getting her tie from Albus.

"He fell asleep in my trunk before we left for the platform and I tried to wake him up but he just stayed snuggled in with my grey wool coat, you know? The one with the big buttons at the front." Skyler replied tightening the tie. "How do you do it so perfect?" She said quietly to Albus before turning back to the other two.

"I can't see why he'd want to move! That coat is fantastic! I remember you let me wear it to Hogsmeade last year and I was so warm!" Monica said.

"What's with you and that ferret? You let that thing do whatever it likes.." Albus sat back and put his feet onto the seat.

"Comet isn't just a ferret! He's a friend too.." She trailed off and looked away from Albus, crossing her arms.

After a minute of silence Scorpius said: "You girls have to hop out for a bit, we need to get dressed too"

"Oh sod off, you get changed in front of us all the time." Skyler waved him off and looked a bit vexed.

"Yeah, get over it and harden up princess." Monica continued after her. The boys gave them both glares and pulled down some robes.

While Albus pulled off his shirt he talked to the girls. "Why did we have to go outside? Why couldn't you guys just get changed normally?" The only reply he got was a look that suggested he was a complete idiot.

"Al, do you realise what you just suggested? Incase you didn't I'll tell you. You just suggested that these two girls get changed in front of us. That doesn't really seem like the most innocent of ideas does it?" Scorpius smacked Albus in the back of the head and he retaliated with a slap. It then turned into a fully fledged fight.

"Well that escalated quickly." Monica commented as the two that were still sitting on the seat stared at the two shirtless boys wrestling on the floor. Watching their two best friends wrestle on the ground of their compartment without shirts wasn't necessarily the best situation to be in, especially when half of the school already thought they were involved with the boys.

"Get off of each other! You're both complete idiots! Just get dressed already. We're going outside, see you in a minute." Skyler finally said.

The blonde boy and his black haired companion fell silent and watched the girls exit. As soon as they shut the door the pair got off the floor and began to put on their shirts. Scorpius' was crisp and stark white, but Albus' on the other hand was crumpled and creased and definitely not completely white like the other boys.

On the other side of the door the girls were giggling.

"I can't believe he actually asked that!" Monica said through her giggles.

"He's such a prat!" Skyler laughed.

After a while the girls returned to find the boys fully dressed and Scorpius with his hair a mess from its usual spiked back with his fringe falling over his forehead. They were in quite a state, both with their hair an absolute mess and both of them with their wand pointed at the others face, ready to send a hex flying any second.

"What the hell happened here?!" Skyler stepped between them as Monica grabbed both of their wands.

Suddenly Albus launched himself at Scorpius knocking the girl in-between them away in the process. She was pushed hard into the seat and knocked her head hard on the wall.

"STOP! STOP IT! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE YOU PAIR OF IDIOTS!" Monica's shrill cries filled the whole compartment. Someone suddenly burst through the door. It was James. He pulled roughly on the collar of Albus' shirt yanking him off the blonde boy.

Monica went over to where Skyler was laying on the seat looking like she was about to faint. "Are you alright?" she look terrified.

"Are the boys alright?" Skyler looked down at the floor with foggy eyes.

"They're fine! But how are _you_?!" Her black hair kept falling over her face from all of the frantic movements she was making to try and help her friend.

"Oh yeah Im completely fine, but where are the boys? I need to talk to them. They're imbeciles…." Her voice sounded slurred and weak but she still managed to make her voice sound venomous.

Albus had stopped moving when he saw the state of Skyler. Scorpius was frozen on the floor just staring at the ground.

James finally let go of Al and started to talk. "What the hell happened here? How did that even start, all I heard, and I'm sure the rest of the carriage heard it too, was Monica scream then a massive bang. They all thought someone was shot. But there wasn't a sound out of the ordinary before that."

"I… he… it…" Al started.

"Monica you should probably go get Skyler some help. She doesn't look like she's in the best shape." Scorpius said evenly. Monica helped Skyler out of the small room and went to a compartment full of seventh years. After the girls had left he continued to talk in the same calm tone. "Now James, what started the fight isn't important. I just want to forget about it as soon as possible. I am sorry about what happened Albus and I hope it will never happen again."

Albus finally came out of his trance. "I'm sorry I called you a posh pureblood. I know you hate it when people judge you just by your blood status. I really am sorry, and I'm sorry we got into something so massive over something so petty."

"I'm sorry I said you should have been put in Gryffindor Albus but who cares, right? Buds?" Scorpius looked up into green eyes and smiled.

"You know it Malfoy." Albus held out his hand and helped the other up. Once they were both on their feet he apologised to James and walked with him back to his compartment. That left Scorpius alone.

He knew that wasn't the real source of the argument but he didn't think it needed to be mentioned again. He began to put his robes on when Albus came back into the room. "I really am sorry" was the last thing said between them for the rest of the trip.

Later that night in the common room the four friends were talking.

"I can't believe I did that to you" Albus looked terrified "I'm so sorry! I really am"

"Al calm down. I'm fine, actually I'm better than fine! Now I have this awesome cut." Skyler smiled and pointed at her forehead "I could be your dad" she laughed and smiled at Al who was laughing with her rather nervously.

"I can't believe you actually think thats cool, sometimes I may as well just hang out with three guys." Monica rolled her eyes.

"It's getting late guys, we should probably go to bed soon" said Scorpius.

"You're such a party pooper Scorp." Monica droned.

"Oh well, we may as well go to bed now then." Skyler stood up and moved over to where Albus was sitting. She pulled him up and into a hug. "Don't worry Al, I'm fine really. I forgive you."

The group split as they got closer to the dormitory doors. They said their goodnights and disappeared into the separate corridors. In the boys dorm there was already two people in there. Mason and Blade greeted them warmly and there was hugs all round. On the other hand in the girls dorm there was a bitterness in the air when Monica and Skyler walked in on Kailee and a Slytherin guy making out, it wasn't even her Ravenclaw boyfriend. Kailee shot them a sharp look when they came in.

"Hello Kailee, nice to see you again. We don't mean to interrupt, we're off to bed." Skyler smiled at her sweetly and started digging through her trunk for her pajamas. Monica went to her trunk and got her things then disappeared into the bathroom. Skyler followed her soon after.

"You better go Caleb, before they get us both into trouble." Kailee whisper to the boy before going to get her stuff. She silently followed the other girls lead and went into the bathroom.

"I'm sorry girls, I didn't mean to seem so sour, I hope we can still be friends." Kailee said to the girls as she took off her robes.

"Don't worry about it Kay Kay." Monica said trying to end the conversation at quickly as possible.

Skyler was already dressed in a grey hoodie that was way too big for her and her green panama pants, so she went over to the sink and started to brush her teeth. Monica was dressed next, in singlet and pink panama pants with puppies on them, she waltzed over to the sink Skyler was occupying and shoved her aside. Skyler gave her a foam filled smile and spat out the contents of her mouth. They were quickly finished and exited the bathroom as quickly as they had entered.

Skyler ran and jumped on her bed "I can't wait for tomorrow, its fantastic that this year we came back on a friday. That means a Hogwarts weekend! Yeah!" she rambled on about how amazing it was going to be. She finally got comfortable and her rambles turned into mumbles as she slowly fell asleep.

"Goodnight Sky" Monica laughed before she too went to sleep.

**I hope you like it! Review if you please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Woo! Next Chapter! Thankyou to Bam-A-Lamb and The anonymous reviewer :) I love you both!**

Monica woke first to see Skyler sleeping face down in a gigantic mess of blankets still sleeping peacefully.

She glanced at the watch she had gotten from muggle London when she visited Albus' house the year prior. It was only 6 o'clock. She grinned cheekily and tip-toed over to Skyler's bed, when she was beside it she quietly stepped onto the bed and did her best not to wake her. Monica then began bouncing on the bed.

"Oh hello there Monica. Fine morning don't you think?" Skyler rolled over and smiled at the girl with black hair currently jumping up and down on her bed. "Trying to annoy me were you? I doubt you could ever do such a thing Monica, I'm too used to you."

"I was just going to wake you up so we could go do the same to the boys." Monica shared her grin with the other girl. Who mirrored her perfectly.

"Lets go, the earlier the better." Skyler said leaping out of her bed, she rubbed her eyes and stretched. With one more yawn she was heading out the door but not before grabbing her water bottle and taking a long gulp. As they went out the door way she set it down near the door.

The two of them went down the stairs towards the common room and up the stairs to the boys room. They tip-toed up the cold staircase and Skyler nearly burst into laughter when they stepped into the almost silent room to see two guys in strange positions on their beds, two of them with the bed curtains closed and Mason was on the floor. Mason grumbled and flipped onto his back. The girls thought they were about to get caught but he soon settled and went back into a deep sleep.

"How the hell did he end up there?" Monica said in a whisper that could barely be heard. Skyler just shrugged a reply and began to moved towards their target across the room.

They stood in between the beds for a little while. "Which one do you want to annoy the most?" Monica asked.

"I'll do Scorp because Albus will start thinking I'm still mad at him or something and I'm using this as some form of revenge." Skyler replied in a whisper. She silently moved over to Scorpius' bed and peered through the thick green curtains. All she could see was his face peeking out through the top of his blankets. His features were soft and he looked perfectly content with staying there all day. "I almost feel bad for doing this…almost" Skyler winked and held the curtain open a little more so Monica could see him.

Monica then went over to Al's bed and opened the curtains. He was sleeping on his stomach with his mouth open. Skyler and Monica struggled to contain their giggles but when they finally composed themselves they opened the curtains so they could climb onto the beds quietly and quickly without waking the two boys.

As soon as they were both standing on the end of each bed, Monica gave a nod and they started jumping. "Albus! Wake up!" Monica said in a sing song voice. Skyler then followed suit and did the same thing to Scorpius. Soon both of the boys were squirming under their blankets.

"What in Melin's name are you doing jumping on my bed this early on a bloody Saturday?" Albus groaned from under the blankets. "Stop it please!"

"Get up Albus! We need you help! Cute innocent Scorpius won't wake up." Monica bounced onto her knees and started shaking him by the shoulders.

"I will if you get the hell off me!" Monica put her hands in the air and sat beside him as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Skyler was having a bit of trouble getting Scorpius to wake up. By the time Albus came over to help she'd pulled off the blankets and was trying to pry his eyelids, all of them knew he was awake he just didn't want to get up.

"Sky, stop. I know exactly what to do here, just give me a little minute." Albus then proceeded to place the blankets back over the boy, which made him smile and snuggle down once more, then he climbed over to the other side of him and get under the blankets. Scorpius tried to move away a bit but Albus just put his arm over him and pulled him back. "Good morning sweetie pie. Time for a morning kiss?" This last part made Scorpius' eyes fling open and he tried to squirm out of his firm grasp. Al planted a kiss on Scorpius' cheek and made the girls giggle.

"Ahhh! Ahhhhhh! Girls! Don't just stand there! Help me for Merlin's sake!" The boy was completely alarmed by now and he finally got out of his grasp to leave Al sitting on his bed in a very suggestive position. "Al seriously! What is your deal? That is the second time you've done that you prat!"

"Lets go to breakfast, but I'd suggest you girls go get properly dressed first." Albus laughed at the pajama clad girls as they both blushed and nodded before leaving silently to leave the boys to dress in peace.

Their first week back at Hogwarts flew past like a wisp of breeze on a cold winter day. The next Sunday Albus, Scorpius and Monica were sitting out near the quidditch pitch talking and laughing.

"Why couldn't Sky come?" Scorpius was eating an apple he had saved from lunch and finding shapes in the clouds.

"She said she has to finish her Charms essay, I'm pretty sure its due in like a month though. And then you and her have to go to Quidditch practice. What should we do Al?" She was leaning against a tree and ripping apart leaves.

"We could go watch?" Monica was about to complain when he quickly continued "Or! Or, we could go back to the common room, or to the library, or even just stay around here." Albus replied looking up at the black haired girl from his place on Scorpius' stomach.

"Definitely not to the library! Sunday is not the day for studying, and I am sticking to that." Monica suddenly looked uncomfortable and took off her purple jacket. "I swear you guys are gay, seriously, you're aways touching each other. No, not like that!" She held up her hands as the two boys just laughed at her "No, I mean like hugging each other and Al you always throw Scorpius around like he's a doll."

"Thats because we're in love" They stared into each others eyes before bursting out laughing so suddenly it scared her.

"I don't even know why I'm friends with you guys. You're such idiots." Monica replied rubbing her temples.

"It's because you don't have any other friends, no one else can deal with you and Sky." Scorp said, "We have our hands full with you two."

"Now you just be quiet Scorp." She playfully moved his head with her foot and smiled, he just replied with a wink.

When Scorpius retired to Quidditch practice Albus and Monica started to walk back to the castle lazily. Albus conjured a flower just as they were entering the entrance hall and handed it to her. "Consider it an apology for what Scorp said, he's such a twat" He laughed and they walked in silence the rest of the way to the dorms. The rest of the afternoon was spent on a series of wizard chess games. Before to long dinner had rolled around and they were heading up to the Great Hall.

Soon November was upon them, the weather was getting terribly cold and everyone was getting ready for another visit to Hogsmeade.

"I think I'll ask that Ravenclaw girl to come to Hogsmeade with me on the weekend." Scorpius was leaning back on his chair, it was just before lunch and the four of them were sitting at the back of the Charms classroom.

"Are you kidding Scorp?" Skyler asked looking up from her parchment "All the Ravenclaw girls are too smart to fall for you." She laughed at her own joke and continued. "Anyway, just because you've finished the notes doesn't mean you can to us talk about your love interests, we still have to do our work." with that she flicked her fringe away and continued with her notes.

"Yeah, you have to learn to shut up. You always do that, just because your a quick writer." Albus piped up from his spot next to Scorpius.

"Sod off you two." Scorpius didn't say anything after that and grabbed a small black book that said "Defence Against the Dark Arts" in small glden writing from his bag and read for the rest of the lesson.

After the lesson he walked up to a short Ravenclaw girl called Theresa and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

**I hope to get the next chapter up asap! Hope you enjoyed it! PLEASE REVIEW :D**


	4. Chapter 4

When she turned around her brown eyes dulled and her smile disappeared. The girl looked disappointed.

"H-hello… uh… Theresa.." Scorpius managed to say quietly. About three meters behind him his three friends were looking on horrified at how quickly he could get so shy.

"Oh, hi Malfoy." she looked at him down her nose "What do you want?"

"How did you know I was a Malfoy? We've never even met." was his first question, "Well anyway, uh… I was wondering if you wanted to go Hogsmeade this weekend."

"Well first of all, that blonde hair is typical Malfoy and secondly, of course I want to go to Hogsmeade. Just not with you." the snobby little girl turned around and joined her friends again who all laughed except for one girl who looked up at Scorpius before looking at the ground again.

"Oh.." was all the blonde boy replied with before turning around to face his friends. All he did was stare at the ground.

"I don't like that girl very much." Albus said in a low voice.

"I don't either" Monica agreed.

"Agreed" Skyler pulled Scorpius into a quick one handed hug then left the group to take care of him. She walked over to the large group of Ravenclaw girls and cleared her throat.

"What do you want you Slytherin bitch?" said a girl with auburn hair and blue eyes.

"How dare you speak to me like that, and how dare you even think about insulting me." Skyler glared at the six or seven girls standing around, they all faltered and looked at the ground. "And how dare you be so mean to Scorpius, he was trying to be nice. The least you could have done was at least let him down gently. If you ever come near me or any of my friends ever again I may have to hex some sense into those thick skulls of yours. I thought you would have been smarter being in Ravenclaw and all, but I guess deception is one of your strengths."

The group were dumbfounded and just stared at her dumbly. Finally one of them spoke up. "Well don't come near us again then"

"Fine by me, and by the way, I'm taking this one" Skyler grabbed the girl that looked at Scorpius previously. The girl didn't object while she was pulled away from the group of shocked girls who were shouting in protest. "I'm sorry, you just looked terrified. I didn't want to leave you with that bunch of knobs."

The girl was apparently surprised with being pulled away from her own group because she didn't speak for a minute when they joined Albus, Monica and Scorpius. "I'm sorry about what Theresa said Scorpius. She can be awfully rude a lot of the time, so can all the other girls." The girls voice was quiet and high pitched.

"Oh, its fine. If anything I should be sorry for interrupting you girls doing whatever girls do." Scorpius looked a bit dejected after his confrontation with Theresa but when he looked up at the other little Ravenclaw he couldn't help but let a little smile creep onto his lips when he saw how timid she was. "What's your name?"

"My name is… uh.. its..Jasmine" The girl stammered, trying her hardest to make eye contact a rare occurrence.

"Well Jasmine, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Scorpius couldn't stop smiling at her shyness.

Jasmine nodded briefly and said something about having to go to lunch. Scorpius smiled at the light shade of pink that crept onto the girls face as she tried to hide her face and walked towards the Great Hall.

Monica saw the disappointment behind Skylers smile as they entered the Great Hall. The group sat in almost silence with the exception of Albus' incessant question to Scorpius, who was smiling down at his food but not answering any of Al's questions, so he soon gave up and they ate without a word being said until the next lesson.

By the time the weekend rolled around Al had also asked out a girl, this time from Slytherin, who's name was Kalia.

"I guess we'll have to go without them then." Skyler said as they approached the Entrance Hall. "Dumb boys, leaving us for some stupid girls." she muttered along with some other insults.

"I can't believe they would even think about doing that. It's preposterous." Monica replied looking at her friend. She almost screamed when she saw Blade obscuring their path. "Melin Blade. You have to be more careful, you'll give someone a heart attack."

"Sorry, I was just wondering if I might go with you girls to Hogsmeade? Mason has got some date and seeing you're alone I guess Scorp and Al have too. I don't really fancy going with Blake either, I know he's my twin brother and everything but I was playing chess with him before and he doesn't plan on going so I didn't want to drag him there." Blade rambled on for a few minutes about how sorry he was about the intrusion.

"Oh be quiet you fool!" Monica slapped his arm playfully and smiled at him, "Come on, lets go already!" The two of them managed to drag him out of the immense doors and started down to the village.

The weather was unbearably cold and there seemed to be chilly edge to the landscape. Skyler loved the cold weather and smiled at the grey sky, she snuggled down into her grey coat. The coat was incredibly warm and had been a birthday gift from her mother, it had green buttons and a matching trim around the bottom, collar and around the wrists. The other two were talking and laughing so much they basically forgot they were even with anyone, until of course Skyler offered Monica her scarf when she shivered terribly.

After the visit, in which they only went to Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks before returning to the castle, Skyler left Monica and Blade to go do some studying for the coming exams in the library, but they all knew she was just going to read books about nothing in particular. Maybe one of the few muggle novels they had stored, she'd always been very fascinated with the ways of muggles. Either way Blade and Monica went down to the common room to put away their things and play a game of wizard chess.

"Thankyou." Blade said before moving his queen.

"For what exactly am I being thanked for?"

"For letting me come with you to Hogsmeade. You didn't have to but you did."

Monica moved her knight and replied, "Any time"

There was sparse conversation over the rest of the game and soon the sun was setting.

Skyler returned to the common room she found Monica had finished hanging out with Blade and had fallen asleep peacefully in an arm chair near the fire waiting for her to return. Skyler smiled at the softened features of her best friends face, if she'd been in that position herself she would have fallen asleep in a strange position and would be snoozing away in a most undignified manner. That thought made her snigger as she passed the sleeping girl, who made a small noise and snuggled further into the squishy green couch. Skyler quietly went up the stairs and made her way into the room, the two girls she never really knew were perched on the corner of one of their beds gossiping and whispering, so she completely ignored them and dumped her things loudly on her bed and grabbed a thick green book from the bedside table then proceeded to go back downstairs to join her friend on the couch.

Soon after she got down there Monica had woken up and she'd fallen asleep reading. Later on that night, Al and Scorp came in just after dinner and Monica claimed she wasn't hungry but ate the food they'd gotten for her anyway. Scorpius soon recognised Skyler's lack of consciousness, and was about to wake her when Al butted in.

"Leave her, let the girl sleep." he said putting his hand on the other boys shoulder "I'll carry her up to the room, grab her book." Soon Albus was sweeping his strong and capable arms under Skylers body and lifting her from the couch.

She fussed and made a weak attempt at getting up, then gave up and snuggled into Al's chest. Scorpius just watched on in silence and grabbed her book. He followed them up the stairs to their room and felt something inside him crack a little when Albus set her down on her sheets, pulled her blankets over the top and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

She's one of my closest friends! Snap out of it Scorpius!

He mentally slapped himself and it seemed to have an affect on the outside as well because he rubbed his tingling cheek and composed himself. He bid Monica goodnight and with a quick hug the boys left the room. Something was happening, he just didn't know what.

It was Monday morning which meant, you guessed it, Potions! There was only one week until they all had to return to their families for Christmas, but it didn't seem like it from the amount of homework they received from the teachers everyday. At the moment they had 4 essays to do by the next term.

Al sighed loudly, he was only half listening to the pointless drawl spilling from the teachers mouth. Scorpius and Skyler seemed to be the only ones in the class actually listening to him and taking notes as he went on about the effects of Felix Felicis. Monica had her head on her desk and had most likely already fallen asleep like half of their class. Once the Professor mentioned something about trying out the potion today everyone was jumping out of their seats.

"Calm down students!" Professor Stitt yelled over the noise of the classroom "Get back to your seats now! Students!"

There was a long high-pitched whistle from somewhere to the left of the room. It was Mason. The whole class fell silent. "People, calm down. Listen to the Professor." he said with some sarcasm but the thin man at the front of the classroom looked thankful anyway.

"Thankyou Mr Ebling. Now, I will put the instructions on the board and you will have until the end of next period to finish." Professor Stitt flicked his wand and the chalk started to write.

"Scorpius, I'm going with you today. I'm not in the mood to blow up a cauldron today." Skyler pulled him out of his seat and dragged him to where the ingredients were stored.

"Oh come on! I'm not that bad am I?" Albus whinged as he joined them with Monica trailing behind him.

The two blonde teens shot him a look and he cowered a little, before returning to getting all his ingredients. The class passed in a hazy blur of smoke and shouting but in the end nobody got the potion quite right.

"Don't worry class. This won't be marked, it is a very difficult potion and we will be working on some hard ones next term. I just wanted to introduce you to some harder things." Professor Stitt looked terrified by the idea of it but dismissed the class soon after.

At lunch three of them were sitting together. Albus, then Monica in the middle and Scorpius on the other side. Skyler was sitting with some Ravenclaw students doing as much homework as possible before the holidays. She was next to Blake Zabini, Blade's twin brother, and he was smiling at her widely. Monica saw her laughing at something he said and glanced at Scorpius to see him staring at his food as if it was the most interesting thing in the hall.

"I wonder why she is sitting over with them.." Albus said quietly to Monica so Scorpius wouldn't hear "Maybe she thinks Scorp isn't smart enough for her anymore."

"That definitely isn't the case Al." Monica whispered back, "She might have got an invitation to sit with them. Probably Zabini."

"Did I hear my name?" said Blade from the other side of the table.

"Oh, wrong Zabini Blade. We're talking about Blake." Monica replied with a small smile.

"Sorry, I'll leave you to it then." Blade started to talk to a fourth year seated to his left and seemed as if he had completely forgotten the conversation he had had just seconds ago.

Monica and Albus kept observing the cluster of Ravenclaws surrounding their friend. They all seemed as if they wanted to impress her, Monica and Albus didn't really know why but it was pretty obvious. Albus saw Blake shuffle slightly closer to the girl and knew what he was trying to do, but he also saw Sky move that little bit further away and knew she didn't want to stay at the table any longer. The brunette shot out of his seat and leapt over the table, almost catching the top of Blade's head. He soon arrived next to Skyler and pulled her up by her arm.

"Grab your things Sky, Monica needs help. Its urgent!" Albus helped collect her things and rushed back to their own table.

"Thank you so much. To much intelligence!" Skyler held her head dramatically and swayed a little in her seat.

"Was it really that bad? I thought you would be loving it until I saw you move away from Blake." Albus said.

"Yes! I mean I'm probably smart enough to be in Ravenclaw but all they talk about is school work! And I don't really know why Blake was so determined to get close to me, I mea everyone knows he likes you Monica." Skyler blurted out but held her hand over her mouth as soon as the last word was out of her mouth, "I wasn't supposed to say that."

Monica looked as if she'd been petrified. She dropped her fork and stared at the two in shock. She didn't move a muscle other than her eyes which were flickering from one friend to the other.

Skyler slowly moved along the bench, closer to Scorpius and pressed her side up against him. She averted her eyes from Monica and started a conversation with Scorpius about quidditch strategies.

Scorpius could feel colour filling his cheeks as she moved closer. He tried his hardest not to let her see and thankfully she didn't seem to notice, being too busy with their conversation. They walked together back to the common room to get their things, all the while Skyler was avoiding Monica.

They entered Herbology and both greeted Professor Longbottom with a wide smile. "Good morning! Nice to see you Skyler, and you too Scorpius."

"Good morning Professor." The pair said in unison and put their bags down. "Anything you need help with?" Scorpius said.

"I'm ok at the moment, thank you for the kind offer though."

Kailee suddenly shoved past Skyler, knocking her into a a bag of soil. She gave a quick apology and busied herself with sorting through her bag. Skyler was fine but she was currently cover in a soil and was on the ground laughing hysterically. Once she composed herself she got up, brushed of all the dirt and went over to the dark haired girl in the corner. "You alright Kailee?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. Maybe. Not really. But I should be asking you that, not the other way around." Kailee looked at Skyler, her eyes red and wet from crying.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. What's wrong though?" Skyler pulled her former friend into a one armed hug.

"It's.. nothing really… I'm just… I broke up with my boyfriend. Not really a big deal." Kailee's voice cracked and she was avoiding eye contact.

"Oh well. He doesn't know what he's missing out on. Like you said, no big deal." Skyler comforted her and by the time the other students had filed into the room she was calmed down. Kailee stuck with the four friends for the rest of the days classes and everything seemed to be going back to how it was the previous year.

When they returned from dinner Scorpius and Albus sprawled on a squishy green couch, Albus' head on the other boys stomach. Monica and Kailee claimed a pair of beanbags and Skyler grabbed a couch cushion and made herself comfortable on the ground.

"This" Monica made gesture towards the two boys lying on the couch, "Is the biggest bromance in the school. I mean seriously, you guys can't go a day without making a joke about the two of you being gay to some first years." Al met the comment with a smirk and Scorpius just waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I'll kiss him if you don't believe us." Albus said it with such seriousness it scared the girls a little until both the boys burst into laughter.

"Go on then. Kiss him." Skyler smirked at the two of them and the whole lot of them fell silent.

"Is that a challenge I hear?" Albus held his hand up to his ear.

"You bet"

"Lets do this." Scorpius turned to Al, looking a little frightened of what he had just proposed. "You should have been in Gryffindor" he whispered.

Al winked and sat up. He turned to face the boy and leant to whisper something to him quickly. "Come on, grow a pair, it's just a joke after all." Al then continued to grab Scorp's shoulders and moved closer, he kissed him lightly and pulled back with a smirk plaster on his face. The girls were in shock. They didn't actually think they would do it, except Skyler, she knew he wouldn't turn down a challenge. To Scorpius the kiss was different, he had kissed a girl before but never a guy. It wasn't specifically bad or unpleasant, just different. His lips were still tingling slightly from where his lips had touched Albus'.

"Your turn." Al said to Skyler.

"What? Is this turning into a game? Ok then, Dare." Skyler looked at him with a small smile and waited for his answer.

"Ok I dare you too…" He looked around the room for inspiration and it finally dawned on him. "You have to kiss someone from this group. Your choice."


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it took me so long to update D: I'll try to update more often, I promise! Hope you like this chapter, and please review! :D **

They all looked at Al, all in shock. "That's like kissing one of my family members, what the hell?!" Skyler exclaimed waving her arms about dramatically. Her mouth remained open, with her jaw basically on the floor. She looked around the group to find someone to agree with her but all she found was one green-eyed boy smirking, two girls giggling but looking quite shocked and a Malfoy who's eyes were the size of golfballs, and he didn't really look in the best shape to speak up. She still couldn't work out why he was so shocked but pushed it to the back of her mind and focused on the current predicament.

"Go on then, choose." Albus looked very satisfied with himself. Scorpius looked like he wanted to say something but his mouth was just opening and closing uselessly.

Skyler cursed under her breath and started to think out loud. "Well, sorry girls, but I don't really want to kiss either of you. And I don't really want to kiss you, because you're a prat. So I guess I'll go with Scorp." She sighed and got up. Scorpius looked a mix of terrified, shocked and Skyler swore he seemed a bit happy too. She slowly walked over to him on the couch and bent down. After hesitating for a while she straightened up and spoke. "Do I really have to do this? It feels like incest." She already knew the answer but looked at Scorpius for some sort of comfort, all she got from him was a weak smile so she decided it would be easier just to be done with it.

With one final sigh she bent back down and kissed him quickly. When she moved away she tried to hide a smile but it ended up a smirk, which was explainable.

"Who's next? Don't worry, I won't make you kiss anyone." Skyler said when she got back to her spot on the floor. "Scorpius, your turn."

"M-me? oh.. ok.. well I guess I'll go truth." He replied moving on the couch so Al was laying on him again.

"What's it like being a Malfoy? I mean I heard you guys get death threats and stuff." Everyone looked at him curiously.

"It's quite scary really, I've been getting them since I was born and I can hardly leave the manor because its too dangerous. Well I can, but only with my parents or to visit you guys. I always have someone with me, like my father, it's quite annoying really. I mean I can defend myself now but it's quite scary sometimes when people try to hurt me, even after so long. I mean really, is been like more than 20 years since all that stuff happened with the war and everything." Scorpius didn't seem to be paying attention to the girl's horrified expressions but when he saw it he blushed deep crimson.

Skyler didn't speak and stared at the ground, a lot of her family had been killed during the war and never really liked to talk about it. Scorpius quickly realised and a wave of guilt washed over him.

"I'm so sorry Sky, I didn't even-" He was cut off by Albus' hand over his mouth, he heard the boy whisper a quick "Shut your mouth".

"Well on that bomb shell. I think we might go off to bed." Al shot an apologetic smile at Skyler and she smiled back at him faintly. Within seconds Al had dragged the blonde boy up to their room and pushed him onto his bed.

"Ow! What was that for?" Scorpius held the back of his head and sat up.

"I'm sorry, I know you didn't mean it but I just feel so sorry for her." Al fell back onto his bed, "Even though she wasn't around when they died she only has one grandparent, her uncle died and she only really has Monica because her parents are away all the time. She should just take some of my cousins. I have enough of those."

"She'll be okay in the morning, well I hope so anyway because I feel terrible." Scorpius got up and started rummaging through his trunk, "Jelly slug?" He threw one at Albus before hearing an answer and heard him laugh when he saw the assortment of different candies stuffed inside his trunk.

"Why do you have such an obsession with sweets?" Al laughed and grabbed his pajamas from under his pillows.

"Because they're so delicious!"

A smile spread across both of their faces. Albus threw his shirt at Scorpius. The boy didn't react at all and just laid there with a shirt on his face. "You're so strange." Scorpius laughed under the shirt and flicked it off his face in one quick movement.

"You know you love it" Scorpius winked and threw his own shirt at the other boy. They ended up having a massive pillow fight and Albus was pinned on the floor with Scorpius on top laughing at him. "That's right Potter! I beat you, again." Scorpius smirked at the boy twisting and wriggling to try and get away from his firm hold.

"That was a dirty move Malfoy. You aren't allowed to pin me to the ground after tripping me over." Albus sounded serious but his face told another story.

"Don't turn into a noble Gryffindor on me, you know I'm a dirty player. A Malfoy through and through, I'm surprised you even thought I would give you a chance." A smug look formed on Scorpius' face and Albus just growled at the boy on top of him. Scorpius flashed him a charming smile and laughed when Albus tried to bite him.

"Well.. this looks suspicious." The two boys on the ground looked at the door where a boy with black hair and miss-matched eyes was leaning on the door frame. He laughed at the two boys who seemed to only just realise they had no shirts on and one of them was on top of the other in a very suggestive position. "What have you guys been up to?"

Scorpius let go of Albus' wrist and stood up. "We were having a pillow fight" he blurted out before he realised how strange that sounded, two shirtless boys having a pillow fight, seems a little strange. Both of them blushed and went back to getting changed into their pajamas.

"You guys aren't having showers tonight?"

"I had one this morning." replied Scorpius.

"I had one as well"

"Ok, well I'm going to have one, and don't let me catch you in the middle of a make out sesh!" Mason joked as he disappeared into the bathroom.

The two boys left in the room looked at each other and smiled, although a little embarrassed they'd been in such a position without even thinking it a little strange. When Albus was fully dressed he flopped back onto his bed and grabbed his Potions textbook. Scorpius did the same but grabbed a Quaffle instead of a book. "I did my essay already, it's quite easy really."

"Mine is almost finished, Monica and I are going to finish ours tomorrow afternoon when you guys are at quidditch practice." Albus flicked through the thick black textbook.

"I forgot we had practice tomorrow." Scorpius studied the ceiling, suddenly deep in thought, still throwing the quaffle around. He soon got bored of his little game and soon started practicing changing the colour of Albus' hair. Purple, yellow, red, blue. Albus saw Scorpius looking at him pointing his wand at him and started to get worried. The now orange haired boy figured out what he was doing as soon as one of his orange locks fell over his eyes.

"Ahh! I'm a Weasley!"

"Well duh genius. Now you just look the part as well." Scorpius smirked at the shocked boy who apparently thought he could hide the orange by running his fingers through it and shaking his head violently. "Fine I'll turn you into a Malfoy instead." Scorpius rolled his eyes and made the boys hair go platinum blonde.

"What have you done!" The green eyed boy was frantic. "I don't want to be a Malfoy!"

"Thanks." Scorpius rolled over and ignored him.

"I didn't mean it like that! You know I didn't! Come on, please change it back to black?" Albus was beside Scorp's bed in an instant, climbing on beside him, pleading.

"I'll do it in the morning, I'm tired, goodnight." Scorpius proceeded to slip under the covers and asked him to close the curtains when he left.

Mason returned from the bathroom soon after and Albus explain what had happened to his hair while Mason sat there and laughed. Al was tired and now he was cranky and it was probably best for him to go to bed, but he laid there for a while thinking about how terrible his luck was. Eventually he nodded off into a deep sleep, clutching his orange hair. Scorpius didn't really go to sleep until he heard Al snoring along beside him, there was something comforting and familiar about it and it let him drift off into dreamland soon after he heard it.

In the morning Scorpius was woken by a blonde head poking through the curtains of his bed. "Get up sleepy head, we have practice. Don't you remember?" said a soft voice. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He soon heard the same voice mutter something that sounded like "Get your arse up Mason" and then saw Skyler walking back towards him.

"I have your clothes here, hurry or we'll be late." she threw his quidditch uniform at him and grabbed his broom. He did as he was told and met her at the door in a matter of minutes. Mason was just behind him still yawning and stretching. "You forgot your broom dufus." Mason cursed and ran to grab it.

"Why can't you get my stuff ready like you do for Scorpius?" the boy whined as they defended the stairs.

"Because you can actually function in the morning." she replied bluntly and tossed an orange to both of them. "Here's something to keep you going."

They all ripped into the oranges with their teeth and left a trail of peels on the grass outside. With a quick spell just before they got to the pitch they were all cleaned up and ready to go. Skyler slipped on her gloves to stop her hands from freezing and approached the captain, who was waiting on the pitch.

"Fallaway" Mason and Scorpius nodded at him and Skyler stepped forward.

"Good morning Andrew." she smiled and received a flash of white teeth in return.

"First ones here I see, probably thanks to my most prized seeker" the tall boy punched Skyler lightly on the shoulder. His smile was crooked and filled with large straight teeth. Spiky light brown hair stuck up from the top of head, with a lot of gel no doubt, and his eyes were a dark inky blue, almost black.

"Knob" muttered Mason to the boy next to him, just loud enough so that it was audible to him.

"How nice of you to finally join us." they all turned around at the captains comment. Loch Lamond, Riley Telirion and Benjamin Nott strolled over to join the group. They greeted each other swiftly and started strapping on gear. "We're going to practice formations today. Especially with the Chasers, we need to improve our passing skills."

They all shot into the air at once and all went to their positions. Loch and Mason with bats in hands, Riley at the hoops and the rest huddled in the middle. Skyler had to fetch the balls from the supply shed and put them into the air. Last of all she got the snitch and held onto it until she got back to the captain. On cue she let go and practice begun. Circling the field she found herself distracted, staring back at the castle. It looked so peaceful in the early morning sun, as if it was sleeping along with the students. A bluey grey mist surrounded the base of the castle making it look like it was floating on a cloud, what a beautiful place to live, such a magical place.

After about 40 minutes a small gold shimmer caught her eye. Over the other side of the field she saw a small golden ball floating there. Quickly she shot through the middle of the game, almost running into Andrew in the process plus getting a loud warning from him. Shooting after the golden sparkle she dived around the hoops and swerved through chasers until finally she spied it hovering close to the ground. As she went after it she tried to pull up her broom but it seemed to be either set on killing on her or stuck. The crash that followed made everyone stop. They all looked up from their brooms to see Skyler on her side, fists clenched, eyes squeezed shut. All of the boys floated slowly down to her, except Scorpius, who flew down as quickly as possible jumping off his broom and running over to her.

"Are you ok? Where does it hurt? What did you do?" the boy was frantic but afraid to touch her incase he hurt her even more.

"I'll answer the last question first. I caught the snitch." Skyler smiled but kept her eyes closed. When she opened her hand a small golden ball rolled onto the grass.

"Thats my seeker! Now, are you ok?" Andrew came jogging up to them and knelt down.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just twisted my ankle, and got the wind knocked out of me." she coughed and sat up, sucking in a few deep breaths and smiling at them all, but they couldn't do anything but stare at her. "What? Whats wrong? Did I say something that offended you?"

Scorpius took off his glove and trailed his finger down her cheek then came away with it covered in blood. At first she was confused but then put her hand on her face causing her to wince a little. "Just a small graze. Nothing to worry about."

"You sure your ok? You might want to go to Madam Pomfreys for that graze" Andrew said grabbing her half splintered broom from the grass. "You might need a new broom over the holidays, and one for this afternoons practice."

"I'm great, and I can get my father to send me my spare broom. Easy fix!" Skyler beamed at them but quickly stopped and held her face. She jumped up and got her broom from Andrew. "I don't think I can keep going on this broom unfortunately, but I'll get one of the school brooms just give me a minute."

"Don't worry about it, really Skyler. You can miss out on the rest of practice if you want." Andrew stopped her and looked at the wound on the side of her face.

"I can help you with the formations, they're uneven without me, and I can't waste 40 minutes of practice just because of a scratch." with that she ran into the changing rooms to get a new broom.

"She has a major problem. She doesn't know when to stop." Mason shook his head and got back on his broom.

After that the team went back to their practice and 45 minutes later they were back at the castle getting ready for breakfast. Skyler sat on her bed and waited for Monica to hurry up and get ready. She was reading a book on the history of dark magic. "Hurry up Brookston!" she shouted over her book to the bathroom.

"Don't call me by my last name, I'm not one of your teammates!"

"Well hurry up then, I'm bloody hungry!"

Just then Monica emerged from the bathroom. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and as well as her robes she had stockings and gloves on. "Why don't you have your stockings on you idiot? You'll freeze!"

"I hate them, you know that, and I have my gloves, and my hat, and my jumper, plus I've pulled my socks up. I'll be fine, it's not like I'm going to play in the snow or anything." Skyler stood up and pulled her robes tightly around her.

Monica just shook her head and exited the room to go to breakfast. When they got to the Great Hall they were some of the first to get there, along with the Slytherin quidditch team, excluding Scorpius, and a few Hufflepuff fourth years. The team waved at Skyler as the pair sat at the end of the table. In the middle of their meal they saw Ablus and Scorpius enter the hall.

"Sorry we're late, I couldn't get this one out of bed." Scorpius motioned to Al as they slid into the seats across from the girls. After a little bit he started talking again. "I was thinking, you guys should come over to my house for Christmas, or sometime near."

"I was thinking about staying here over the holidays, I mean I don't really had much to look forward to at home." Skyler just shrugged and stared into her porridge.

"I might be able to on the day and maybe stay a few days after but I have to stay home most of the time because a heap of my cousins are coming from Russia to stay with us." Monica frowned at him at the mention of her cousins.

"I'll probably be allowed to come over in the morning before we have lunch at the Burrow, but I'll see if I can stay all day and maybe the next day as well." Al didn't look up from his cereal.

"That's cool, but Skyler, you really should go home and get a break from school." Scorpius made her look up and she looked at him with dull green eyes.

"No one will be there to pick me up Scorp. They don't want me home, they have to run around after my cousin and go to work."

"Then it's settled, you'll come home with me and you can floo from there to your house." Scorpius ended the conversation as quickly as he started it and that was that, Skyler was visiting the Malfoy Manor before she went home. And Scorpius couldn't be more happy.

**Review and things and stuff :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**I feel like I've taken forever to write this D: sorry! Hope you like it!**

By the time the holidays came round Skyler had changed her mind about going home with the help of the others, they'd planned for her to stay at each of their houses for a while over the holidays but she would still have to stay home quite a bit in between visits.

She met the Malfoys again, she loved them.

"Hello Skyler." Mr Malfoy held out his hand.

"Hello Mr Malfoy, such a pleasure to see you again." she shook his hand firmly and smiled at the blonde man.

"The same to you my dear girl." he gave her a small smile and pulled Scorpius away to talk to him.

"Hello Mrs Malfoy, pleasure to see you." she went on to greet the lady. She had chestnut brown hair and she was dressed in high heels and a fur coat for the cold. She was very graceful and spoke with a french accent.

"Oh call me Astoria, I told you that last time! Your so sweet, acting all fancy trying to impress us when we already know you're a very nice girl!" Astoria grabbed Skyler's hand and held it in both of hers, then she leant closer to whisper something to her. "Don't worry, I know you and Scorpius are together, no need to hide it." she winked and leant back leaving the girl in a state of shock.

"Oh no, really. You're mistaken Mrs Malfoy, sorry, Astoria we're just friends." Skyler stepped back and let go of the dark haired ladies hand.

Then from over her shoulder heard someone say: "Oh Merlin no. Father, no. Completely wrong. You have it completely wrong."

When she turned around she saw Scorpius looking flustered and slightly shocked, his father however was looking at the boy with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Scorpius walked back over and stood beside Skyler staring intently at the ground. Astoria giggled a little and whispered something to Draco.

"Lets go you two, Scorpius you come with me and Skyler you can go with Astoria." he smiled at her and took Scorpius' arm. They quickly disappeared and left Skyler and Astoria standing there. "Come on" she heard Astoria say as she put her arm around her, then they were off. With a certain flip of her stomach they appeared in the living room of Malfoy Manor.

"Now Skyler, will you be staying for dinner?" Draco turned to them and smiled.

"No, I'm sure her parents will be waiting." Scorpius chimed in quickly.

"I thought you said they were at work, that's why they couldn't pick her up." Astoria raised her eyebrow at her son.

"He's right in some sense, my cousin will be waiting for me to return. I would hate to keep her waiting." Skyler gave a small smile and thanked them for their hospitality, then grabbed her trunk.

"I'll take you to the floo room." Scorpius rushed past her and grabbed her trunk from her in the process. She said her goodbyes to his parents and followed after him.

"What did your father say before to make you say all that stuff. Like, before we got here." Skyler tried to take her trunk from the boy and stepped towards him.

"Oh, nothing." he looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. "You'd better get going, I'll see you soon. At Monica's tomorrow was it?"

"Yeah, staying for five days. Are you staying?"

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow at two o'clock tomorrow then?"

"Definitely." with those final words Skyler stepped into the fire and disappeared. When she appeared in the floo room of her home she stumbled out of the fire place and headed up to the staircase to avoid her cousin Lucinda who was likely lurking around the kitchen. She was almost up the stairs when she heard footsteps. Skyler ducked behind a high pillar and cursed her trunk for being so bulky.

"Oh, cousin Skyler, you're finally home." said a whiney voice from the hallway. Cousin Lucinda was in her last year at Beauxbatons and lived with her family ever since her parents were killed in a fire when she was seven. Skyler always hated the girl, with her straight blonde hair, and her pink lips and long eyelashes. Hatred was bound to be the case.

"Oh, Lucinda. How nice to see you. Terrible mind you, but nice all the same." Skyler put on a fake smile for her cousin and emerged from behind the pillar.

"Oh dear. What have you done to your face? I hope it hurt." the girl walked up the stairs very, very slowly, quite like a cougar waiting to pounce.

"Quiddtich my dear cousin, fell off my broom and got a little scratch. Nothing to worry about, it will heal soon enough." Skyler gave a sweet smile and grabbed her trunk again ready to bolt up the stairs.

"Quidditch, such a dirty and disgusting game" Skyler felt her eye twitch slightly at the comment. "But then again, you always were the dirty one, the one getting mud all over your fancy new dresses and getting as gritty as possible. Quite like your father really, aren't you? Nothing like your mother, she hates mess. But no you had to be like your father, right down to your looks. Same smile, same hair, same horrible little smirk and your eyes are even growing to be like his. Getting bluer by the second I'd say. Either way you're still a terrible little toad and no one wants you around. Especially. Not. Me." Lucinda turned around in her pristine white dress and waved her hand dismissively. "Good to have you home cousin."

Skyler ran to her room and dumped her trunk beside the door, she hated bothering the elves with such simple tasks. She shut the door quietly and leant her head against it for a little while breathing deep and calming herself. After she calmed down she smiled to herself and went over to the mirror, her eyes _were_ changing colour. She stared at her eyes in the mirror, they had changed from what used to be brilliant green to a pale washed out, green, mostly grey, but she could see something behind that. A light aqua blue was shining through it all just waiting to take over once and for all. She'd always fancied her green eyes but she knew her eyes changing colour didn't mean the end of the world.

She turned and looked around her room, such a welcoming sight.

Her room was green. She loved green. In the middle of her room sat a large four poster bed with light grey curtains hanging over the top. The sheets were white silk and the duvet was green striped with black. All of the pillows on the bed were silver with green trims except three of them. The first was a light blue cushion Albus' grandmother made her for her birthday, it was knitted and even though her parents begged her to remove it she couldn't part with it. The second was one of Kailee's pillows. A purple one embroidered with silver thread. The third was one of Scorpius' pillows. It was black silk and was the only one that even remotely fit in. The walls of her room was decorated with pictures of her and her friends, one for every Christmas, every birthday and at the end of every school year inside the common room.

As Skyler went to the door and pulled down the latch, then walked over to her desk and sat in her chair. Her desk was white and blue with a matching chair, most of the desk was covered in books, the rest was covered in drawings and notebooks.

She took out a quill from a desk draw and dipped it in a small jar of violet ink. She paused a few centimetres away from the paper, a small droplet fell from the tip of the quill. Skyler could almost hear her mother saying "What a terrible waste of good parchment, you've completely ruined it". She was writing a letter to Monica and Skyler didn't think she'd care how messy it was at all.

_Dear Monica,_

_Hope you're enjoying your family time while you can before I invade tomorrow. I can stay at home if you don't want me to come but I look forward to it. _

_See you soon! _

With one last check over the letter she sent it off. After a while she went to the kitchens to get something to eat but not before running into her favourite cousin on the way there.

"So wheres that little pet you keep with you at all time. What's its name? Cornet? Or something even more ridiculous?" Lucinda sneered.

"Well, Comet actually disappeared just after we got to school at the start of the year so I guess I don't have a pet anymore." Skyler replied quietly and made an attempt to push past her.

"Oh that's just too bad, I guess he didn't want you either." Lucinda let her through and shouted something else about how her parents would never let her get another pet.

Skyler's mind drifted off and started wondering about how Albus was going, he was probably with all his cousins as usual. She was completely right.

Albus was at the Burrow with Rose, Louis, Lily and Hugo. They were planning to prank James, Fred II and Teddy for all the times they had victimised them over the years. They were in the process of putting slugs in their pillows at that very moment. Rose was of course chickening out at the last minute and volunteered for guard duty. The three boys were still busy messing around on their brooms outside and didn't notice that most of their younger cousins had gone into the house. After filling the pillows cases they moved onto the sheets, they were going to put worms under the sheets and beetles in the duvet covers.

"They're coming inside! Hurry up!" screeched Rose from the doorway.

They heard footsteps and started to get frantic, they shoved the rest of the animals into their spots and rushed out of the room into the safety of a closet across the hall. When they heard the door close they ran down to the lounge all at once almost falling over halfway. Just as Albus fell into a chair he heard an enraged shout come from upstairs. "ALBUS! I'M COMING FOR YOU, YOU LITTLE SHIT."

Albus leapt from the chair as fast as he could and headed for the door. On the way out he grabbed a broom sitting by the door, as well as a large coat that belonged to his Uncle Bill and shot into the air. The cold night air whipped through his already unruly hair and he heard shouts from below from his grandmother. He decided to completely ignore them and speed off into the safety of the darkness. He found himself in a large chestnut tree with the shouts of James ringing in his ears, the boy was somewhere nearby and slowly but surely approaching. Soon enough his voice was just a few metres away and Albus was terrified.

"He's probably dumped the broom somewhere, then started running. What was I thinking?" James slapped his forehead and flew away in the direction of the house.

Albus slowed his breathing and calmed down, finally feeling safe. He set himself down on a frost covered branch and rested his head on the trunk. He grew tired and fell asleep in the tree still holding the broom tightly.

He woke to an icy breeze. He'd forgotten where he was and got scared for a little while before realising what had happened last night actually did occur. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and straightened up before trying to rub some warmth into his frozen limbs. After a few minutes his ears picked up shouts from the direction of the house a few kilometres away. Once he was fully awake he mounted his broom and set off at a lazy pace towards the shouts. Still yawning he pulled up out the front of the house and was engulfed in a crowd of worried red heads. Harry came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. When he pulled himself away from all the relatives crowding him, Albus turned around and smirked at his dad.

"Morning Al." Harry smiled and pulled the shivering boy into a tight hug. "How was your night in the trees? You must be freezing. And before you ask yes I went and found you early this morning."

"Quite pleasant really, a bit cold. Better than sleeping in that cramped little room with three of my cousins, and I bet they actually got some sleep tonight, without me screaming in my sleep" Albus leant his head against his fathers chest and kept a tight hold.

"I'm just glad you're back. Now you better go pack your things, you have to leave in a few hours. " Harry pulled back and winked at his son.

Albus smiled back and moved into the house trying his hardest to slip past in the shadows to go upstairs to get his things. He was in the room he shared with Louis, Rose and Lucy and in the process of shoving all his clothes into the bag when Rose came in.

She instantly got mad at him and started yelling. "Where were you?! We've been searching everywhere!" She hit him in the back of the head and tried pushing him.

He quickly finished packing and went over to the desk to write a letter.

_Dear Monica, _

_Do you mind if I come over a bit early? My family is driving me crazy. Sorry if this seems rude, I don't want to intrude or anything._

_From Al _

Albus shoved the letter in an envelope and rushed to get his fathers owl. It was a white owl that he'd named Hedwig II, she never seemed to mind taking letters for anyone from the family and when she saw Albus enter the room she cooed a hello to the boy.

"Hedwig, I need you to send this to Monica. Its urgent." Al tied the letter to her leg and gave her a few treats. Albus smiled as the bird flew out the window towards the direction of the Brookston Household.

Rushing back to his room he hurriedly got everything he didn't want to take and flooed it home, then took his back pack and awaited the arrival of the owl on balcony of his parents room.

* * *

Monica saw a white owl flying towards her from the balcony of her room and greeted it with a treat while she stroked its cheek. "You must be Mr Potter's owl, Hedwig. Very nice to meet you." she smiled and took the letter from the owl, hoping it wasn't a warning that Albus couldn't come.

After reading the letter she immediately went over to her desk and wrote her reply.

_Dear Albus, _

_Of course you can! We don't have any visitors and I'll save you from your family don't worry! See you soon._

_-Monica_

A while after sending the letter Albus arrived with his father.

"Hello Mr Potter." Monica rushed to the fireplace in the lounge and stuck out her hand.

"Good to see you Monica, I hope this isn't too much trouble." Harry shook her hand and smiled at her warmly.

"As if it would ever be an issue. Thank you for bringing him over. I'll see you when you pick him up." Monica smiled back.

"Ok, bye!" with a quick hug from Albus he disappeared into the fireplace.

"Thank you… So much…" Albus put his hand on Monica's shoulder and gave her a relieved smile.

"No problem." She said before bellowing "Mum! Dad! Albus is here!"

There a grunt from a nearby room and a shuffling sound before the door flung open. A small portly man with large, square glasses and dark hair that didn't cover all of his head came through the door. He had the same olive skin as his daughter and a toothy grin formed on his face when he saw Albus. "Albus! Hello! I trust Monica will help you if you need anything, good to see you."

Albus just smiled at him and followed Monica to the drawing room.

A tall woman with sandy blonde hair stood near the window staring out at the garden. She had a sketchbook in hand that said Lucas on the front. When she turned she looked Albus up and down then plastered a smile on her face. "Good morning. I hope Monica will take care of you then? See you at dinner." after her rushed little speech she turned to Monica to give her a stern look before turning back to the window.

"Why do you have Lucas' sketch book?"

Monica's mother dropped the book and told Monica to leave, so they did as they were told but not before Monica slipped to the book under her arm and got away with it, since the lady was so distracted with whatever was so interesting out the window. The two teenagers exited the room and ran up the white marble stairs. Albus loved her house because it was so earthy and cosy, even though the house was large. The walls were a creamy white and brown see-through curtains hung on large windows that looked out on the yard. The house was large and breezy, wooden banisters framed the staircase and almost every room had either dark hardwood floors or dark green carpets.

Albus admired Monica's room as they stepped inside it. The walls were bright yellow, the carpet was light pink matching the curtains almost exactly. The bed spread had yellow covers and white pillows, and looked as if it had been ironed. There was a pink bunny sitting in the midst of her pillows and beside her own bed sat four other single beds, two green, one purple and a blue one.

"Just put your stuff on your bed. I'm guessing you can tell which one is yours." Monica went over to her desk and opened the third draw down.

"Whats that? It's so shiny it hurts." Albus threw his bag onto the blue bed and tried to peer over her shoulder.

"Just some jewellery." She took out a silver necklace with a key on the end and pulled it over her head before slamming the door shut and turning to find Albus inches from her face. She couldn't help but burst out laughing in his face and he soon joined her. "Lets go for a walk down to the pond, we can come back before the others arrive."

They went towards the pond which was a few minutes away from the house and sat in the middle of a bunch of trees. They sat on a log next to the frozen over pond. Albus slowly inched closer to Monica when she shivered until their shoulders were touching.

"It's always nice out here, even if it does get a bit cold." Monica leant against Albus' shoulder and closed her eyes. He held his breath and looked down at her to find her looking back at him with a big grin. Albus leant towards her and their lips brushed briefly before they both pulled back and blushed deep shades of pink. They sat together for a while longer before they got up and went back to the house. Albus intertwined their fingers and they walked back in a comfortable silence.

Just as they got through the double doors they heard someone yelling and footsteps rushing down the steps.

"Lucas!" called Monica. She dropped Albus' hand. "Come here Lucas! I need to tell you something!" as the boy came running towards them and beamed at both of them. Lucas was a year older than Monica, he had the same sandy blonde hair as his mother and had a pair of sharp blue eyes, a little lighter than his sister's and framed by thick lashes. "Your sketchbook is in my room. Mum had it again." As soon as the words left her lips the smile slid off his face and he looked terrified.

"Thanks Monica. I'll come get it later. Oh and hey Albus" Lucas quickly turned to Albus and a new smile formed on his face, not very sincere looking but a smile all the same.

"Hey."

"Okay, see you at dinner or something then Lucas. Bye" And they were off to get Albus settled in.


	7. Chapter 7

**That took longer than expected. Exams and such. Sorry.**

Scorpius was packing his things up in a small blue bag that his father had charmed for him to make it bigger when his mother walked in and stood at the door smiling. Instantly Scorpius was afraid of the cheeky grin on her face.

"Hello Scorpius." she smiled wider.

"What is it? What do you want?" Scorpius looked up and saw her looking at the photos on his dresser.

"How's Skyler?" Astoria couldn't help but giggle when she saw the outrage on her sons face.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't talked to her since she left yesterday. I'll be sure to let you know when I see her." Scorpius kept his head down and shoved a grey scarf into his bag.

"Do you like her Scorpius?" Astoria moved slowly towards him and saw him jump each time her high heels touched the floor.

"Of course I do. She's one of my best friend. I kind of _have_ to like her for that to happen." Scorpius closed the bag and stood to face his mother.

"You know what I mean, just tell me the truth Scorpi" Astoria whined and slumped her shoulders.

"No, I do not have a girlfriend. Yes, I'm friends with Skyler." Scorpius met her gaze with a steely glare.

"Scorpi, don't be like that." was the last thing he heard before he stormed out past her.

When he got to his fathers study he realised he'd forgotten his wand. How could he forget his wand? He dropped his hand before it could hit the door and rushed off back to his room. The door was still ajar from when he ran out of it a few minutes ago and he assumed his mother was still inside. He peered through the crack and saw her sitting on the edge of his bed facing the other way, on the other side of the bed he saw his wand sitting where he was when he was packing his bag. He cursed quietly and got out of sight to plan his approach.

When a plan finally hatched it was 1:45pm. Scorpius only had 15 minutes until he had to leave to go to Monica's. He moved quickly and quietly, leaving his bag just outside his fathers office. When he got to the door he found his mother over near the window and he could here her softly sobbing. He felt sorry for what he did, shoving her out of the way probably wasn't the best move but he couldn't face her now, so instead he slipped into the room silently and hid behind his bed. Then he reached over and took his wand from the floor and knocked over an empty bottle from the water he was drinking. It hit the floor loudly and he snatched his hand back and then tried his hardest not to breath or make any sound. The sobbing stopped and he heard the clicking of her high heels on the floor.

Then the door flung open. It was Draco. Scorpius put his finger to his lips and hoped he wouldn't say anything.

Draco glanced at Scorpius and saw the gesture, then told his wife that they needed to find Scorpius since it was almost time to leave. "You go, I'll make sure he hasn't left anything behind." Astoria nodded and exited the room to go and find her 'missing' son.

"Thank you. Thank you a lot." Scorpius breathed when the door was closed again.

"It's fine, I've done that with my mother a few times in my life." Draco sat on his bed.

"But how do you know anything happened?"

"You think house elves don't tell me what goes on in my own house? Nelly, that little one with that scar on her cheek, she told me about the argument then told me you had left your bag outside my office. I was worried and I thought you didn't want to go to Monica's house anymore." Draco said, twirling his wand in thin fingers.

"Why wouldn't I want to go there? I love getting away from here in the holidays. There is always some boring adults hanging around." Scorpius slumped and fell back on his bed.

"Oh well, let's get you ready then. Got everything?"

"Yeah, my wand was the last thing I needed and that's how I ended up here."

Draco just smiled at his son and threaded an arm around the boys thin shoulders. He was smaller than most boys his age and his father still treated him like he was ten. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Scorpius' watch started to beep.

"You have to go, come on." the older man got up and pulled up his son after him. They mucked around all the way down the stairs and before they knew it, they were standing in front of the fireplace where a very worried Astoria was pacing back and forth.

"I think he's already left." her voice was shaky and she sounded very concerned, but when she looked up and saw her son standing with her husband she was enraged. Anger took over and she started raising her voice. "Scorpius! Where were you? I thought you had left! Why didn't you come talk to me after what you just did? Or apologise for such terrible behaviour? How dare you? I don't think I want to let you go after all!" her face was red with anger and she looked on the verge of hitting both of them as hard as she could.

"Astoria, calm dow-"

"Don't tell me to do such a thing Draco, you don't know how he spoke to me." venom was dripping from her voice.

Draco grabbed the brunette by the shoulders and shook her lightly. "Astoria! Be happy he wanted to say goodbye to us. Be happy he's safe. Forgive him."

She fell silent and ripped herself out of his grip, walking out of the room without another word. Draco turned to Scorpius, who had stayed silent and hadn't moved an inch since she first opened her mouth. "You'd better go now, I'll take care of your mother. I love you son."

"I love you too." Scorpius hugged his father and Draco kissed to top of his head. When Scorpius made a face at him he just laughed.

"You'll always be my little boy Scorpius, you can never change that."

"I should go, I'm late already." as the boy slipped out of his fathers grip he waved before walking through a wall of green flames into Monica's house.

He was greeted by Lucas and they walked up to Monica's room together where his friends were all lounging around. At the current moment, Monica was trying to teach Albus to braid Skyler's hair and Skyler was playing wizard chess with Kailee and beating her if he saw correctly. He thanked Lucas and walked into the room. Albus was about to jump up and drop the hair in his hands when Monica looked at him like she would kill him if he moved.

"Hey Scorp!" Skyler jumped up and grabbed the braid out of Al's hands so it wouldn't fall out then gave Scorpius her best one handed hug while Monica looked like she wanted to maim her best friend for moving. He smiled and greeted them all. "How've you been?"

"I've been good, I have some exciting news but you might want to go back to Monica and Albus if you want to be alive to hear it." Scorpius looked up at Monica who was glaring at Skyler's back trying to hurt her with her eyes. When Skyler went back and sat down on the bed and gave Albus her hair he plonked himself down next to Al and started tailing again. "Well it isn't that exciting for you guys but this is big for me. I finally got my patronus charm to work!" Al looked ecstatic, as did Skyler but Kailee and Monica seemed disinterested.

"Awesome! Show us!" Albus was grinning like a fool.

"Ok, hold on. This may take a little bit. I only got it to work yesterday afternoon." the blonde boy took a deep breath and held up his wand, it was shaking slightly but when he said the spell a wisp of bright white light came from the tip of his wand and started to form an animal. It disappeared and Scorpius looked defeated. "It worked yesterday I swear."

"We believe you. Want some help?" Al got up and reached for his own wand. "What animal was your patronus yesterday?"

"It didn't really form an animal, it almost did. I could almost see the outline of something but I couldn't be sure exactly what it was." Scorpius frowned and stared at his feet.

"I thought you said you got it to work." said Kailee, looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Well.. I was hoping it would turn into an animal when I got around my friends. You know, like you guys would trigger something and make it work properly."

Al made Scorpius look at him and smiled warmly. "We'll make it work Scorp, I promise." Albus squeezed the other boys shoulder and pointed his wand to the air. "Here, I'll show you how."

When Albus tried, an owl shot out of his wand, bathed in blue and white light. The owl fluttered around Scorpius and flew straight to the ceiling, then it glided down to them and landed softly on the black haired boy's shoulder. Albus stroked it's feathers and Scorpius looked on in wonder, soon there was a panther bounding around the room and an owl giving chase. First of all Scorpius was confused but then he looked at Skyler who was smiling as the two charms played around. Albus saw Scorpius frowning and dropped his wand. Soon after the owl had vanished the panther did too.

"Come on, we have to try yours now." Skyler smiled at him and gestured for him to have a go.

The blonde boy stabled himself and tried again, this time when he tried it started to form straight away. He tried to focus on the memory he had yesterday but the white lights dissipated quickly. He tried at least four times after that with that same result.

"What's the memory you're using?" Skyler looked at him as if she was going to read his mind.

"Umm.. well… it's that time when you and Monica walked into the compartment, like the first time we all met." A blush swept over pale cheeks and Scorpius couldn't look her in the eyes.

"Well that's adorable." Monica said sarcastically. The two girls on the bed had started up the chess game again and Kailee was beating Monica pretty badly.

Al glared at the brunette and whispered a threat if she didn't shut up.

"I'm trying one more time, then I'm giving up ok?" Scorpius looked flushed but raised his wand anyway. "Expecto Patronum" Almost instantly a silvery caracal shot from his wand and leapt around the room. Soon it came back to Scorpius and nuzzled his arm. Soon he found himself surrounded by silver and white animals. There was an owl soaring around with a large hawk, a large panther was chasing a fox. The caracal ran around in circles and started to fade.

The wand fell from Scorpius' hand and a smile spread across his face. Suddenly Albus was on his back and all the girls were smiling at him. "Yes Scorp! You did it!"

"Well after that bombshell, lets go to the pond." Monica started to get up. "Mother said we have to go outside for at least an hour this afternoon since it's so clear outside."

"Wicked." said Skyler and she ran to the door. "Come on guys! You can keep practising outside, come on!" she disappeared into the hallway and they heard her running on the wooden floors in the hall. They all followed the blonde girl outside into the snow.

Once outside Scorpius ran to catch up to his friend up ahead, but before he got to her he heard a muffled _'Oof' _somewhere up ahead. He sped up significantly and got to her.

"Ow" moaned Skyler from the ground. She was on her back in the snow, her black jeans prickled with snow. Her grey jacket was covered in snowflakes and her scarf was white instead of its usual red. Scorpius tried had to stifle his laugh but it didn't work and he walked slowly to her. She groaned and he tried to lift her up by the arm. "Stop please, I'll just lay here in the snow. I'm perfectly content with my current position, it's ok."

"Get up Sky." Scorpius said plainly and dragged her to her feet.

"I don't wanna walk…or stand." Skyler leant her head against his chest and heard his heartbeat speed up. She looked up at him. "You aren't very fit are you?"

"What are you on about?"

"Your heart, it's beating really quickly."

"Yeah, I guess I'm not the fittest person." A light blush spread over his pale face.

"You're the best chaser on the team, you're very fit Scorp, and you know it. And so does most of the girls in our year apparently." Skyler realised she was still really close to him and holding his hand tightly. She took a quick step back and pink coloured her cheeks as she dropped her hand as well as her eyes. "Why was your heart beating so fast Scorp? Are you on drugs?" She joked and smirked at him.

"I..I…I don't know, really." Scorpius locked gazes with her and didn't hear their friends approach in the trees. "When did your eyes go blue? I thought they were green."

"Kiss her already!" Came a loud voice from the trees.

Scorpius spun and glared at Albus before walking past Skyler and continuing towards the pond. His face was flecked with snow flakes and a few ice crystals sat on his eyelashes. His cheeks were as red as a fire engine, from both embarrassment and anger. When he found the small frozen pond he sat down on a crunchy log and adjusted his hair, which had apparently gotten very mussed while he was running. He took off his gloves and wiped the snow from his face. He groaned and put his head in his hands, thinking about how bad he had messed up.

The others came into the clearing and Skyler sat down on the other end of his log. He quickly got up and moved to a rock further away and instantly regretted it. He looked into her eyes and saw hurt and anger bubbling in their depths but her pain showed her usual smile. Al sat down next to Monica and Kailee shared the log with Skyler, brushing snow from her hair. Scorpius peered over to Monica and Al out of the corner of his eye and saw them whispering. Kailee also looked suspicious and Skyler noticed but didn't say anything.

Albus suddenly felt something cold hit the back of his neck and trickle down the back of his jacket. He turned to see Scorpius looking smug as ever. "You're done for Malfoy."

Albus launched a projectile of his own and hit the blonde boy square in the chest. Scorpius grunted before the simple fight became a fully fledged war. Wands were drawn and snow was now being flung everywhere. Skyler dived behind a tree with Kailee and the two girls were protected from all the snow being flung around the place. Monica wasn't so lucky. By the time she got to a tree she was covered with debris from the fight. Skyler stepped out from behind the tree and sent a load of snow toppling off the branches of a nearby tree, but as well as covering the boys she covered herself as well unfortunately.

"What the fuck Dervish?" Scorpius complained.

"You demon child! You evil little Slytherin!" Albus couldn't help but laugh as he 'insulted' her over and over again. "But seriously Sky, not cool."

"You know you love me. And plus, I want to go exploring" Skyler smiled sweetly and dragged Kailee back into the trees and the group set off after them.

An hour later, after countless snow fights, they returned to the house. Scorpius, Kailee and Skyler walking in front of Al and Monica. Who were talking in whispers.

"That was weird, you know. The kiss. I mean it was nice and everything but.." Al leant close to her. "there was nothing."

"I know. Let's not tell the others what happened ok?"

"Ok, still best friends?"

"Still."

They were greeted at the door by Lucas and Scorpius saw Al blush a little when he talked to him. Lucas was heading outside to play some quidditch but they declined and headed for the living room instead. The group sat down in front of the fire and soon enough it was dinner time. At dinner Lucas sat next to Al, who was trying to avoid eye contact with Lucas as much as possible when he started asking questions.

"I've never really noticed you guys around Hogwarts before."

"Yeah. I guess we just haven't really been introduced before." Scorpius smiled at Lucas and nudged Albus who mumbled something into his food.

"Well you guys seem alright. I guess I don't have to beat you up too much for being friends with my sister." Lucas smiled and grabbed Al's shoulder.

There was an awkward laugh from Al and he announced he had to got to the bathroom, but on his way from the table he tripped and fell over. "Ow!"

"Are you alright?" Lucas frowned when Albus backed away slightly before running off to the bathroom with his head down. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Can I talk to you after dinner Lucas?" Scorpius smiled at him, leaving a very confused Lucas waiting for the end of dinner.


	8. Chapter 8

After dinner Lucas was pulled away from the rest of the group, plus Lucas' friend Jamie, heading up to Monica's room for a game of spin the bottle. Scorpius scanned the hallway and made sure there was no one around before speaking. "Sorry, but this is kind of a delicate topic. It's about Al."

"Yeah, I guessed that much."

"I think… I think he might have a bit of a man crush on you." Scorpius stared at the ground.

"What do you mean? A man crush? I think that's a bit far fetched Scorpius, maybe he's just nervous to talk to me because I'm one of his best friend's big brother. You know, wanting to impress me and stuff." Lucas chuckled to himself then turned his attention back to the other boy "He isn't gay either, so he can't have a crush on me."

"You don't have to be gay to have a man crush, I have one myself but I'm not gay. Anyway, just be careful around Al please." Scorpius turned and left to head to where the others were but before he got two metres he heard Lucas say: "You're going the wrong way." he turned around and followed the sandy haired boy down the hall.

The game was just starting when they got to the room.

"You're back!" Jamie smiled and made a space between himself and Kailee for the others.

The boys sat down and Scorpius took a turn, they were doing hugs for the first round. The bottle landed on Monica, so naturally he got up and gave her a hug. She went next and it landed on Al, she hugged him and the game went on from there. Then for the kissing to start. It was Jamie's turn and the bottle landed on Kailee. She couldn't help but blush when he kissed her on the cheek, who wouldn't? The guy was well built, tan and had brown hair that fell over his face.

When it was Skyler's turn the bottle just had to turn around to face Scorpius. When she stood up and kissed him, he kissed back, which was at least a good sign. Jamie and Lucas whistled loudly and the girls sat there in stunned silence, Al however was smiling at Scorpius, the three of them had been talking about Scorp and Sky getting together for a few weeks now and they had finally succeeded.

Scorpius and Skyler smiled at each other for a while before they sat down and neither of them could keep it off their faces for the rest of the game.

The rest of their holidays went by in a flash. They spent Christmas at the Burrow with Al's family and New Year's day with the Malfoys. When it was time to go back to school they said goodbye to their parents and boarded the Hogwarts Express, ready to go back to the castle.

Skyler found Al in a compartment almost straight away and they were joined almost intently by Scorpius.

"Do you guys know where Monica and Kailee are?" Skyler asked, "I couldn't find them on the platform."

"Monica gave me a bunch of dirty looks when I said hi to her"

"Kailee ignored me and Monica told me to go and find my own compartment."

Skyler frowned at the responses but quickly lightened up when she remembered what she got from her Aunt May for christmas. "Oh well, but guess what I got from my Aunt for Christmas?"

Al leant in closer so he wouldn't miss a word. "What did you get? Tell us, come on."

"She got me an owl! It's black with grey spots on its wings. I named him Apollo." She looked like she was about to jump out of her seat. "I would have owlet you with him but I only got him yesterday because she was in Mongolia on a business trip and she didn't have time to give him to me on Christmas day."

"That's awesome Sky!" exclaimed Scorpius, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"I feel like such a third wheel right now." Al sighed and pulled Scorpius back towards him. "Hug me! I want to be loved too!" he whined.

"Alright, come here."

Scorpius pulled the smaller boy into a tight hug and laughed when Albus said in a high pitched voice: "Thank you Scorpius, I love you"

"You guys are so weird."

They talked for a few hours and after the trolley lady came by they fell asleep, with Skyler's head on Scorp's lap and his head on Al's shoulder while he leant on the wall. When darkness fell over the room they heard a small knock on their door.

Scorpius got up to answer it when it slid open and small second year peeked out from behind the door. "O-oh, I'm sorry. I just umm.. saw you were asleep and came in t-to tell you that… umm.. I'm sorry I'll leave you"

The taller boy saw the terrified look on the childs face and bent down to the same level. "Look it's ok, I really don't mind. Now, what was it you were going to tell me?"

"Actually.. the message was for umm Albus Potter." the little second year looked at his feet then glanced up at the black-haired boy sleeping against the wall.

Scorpius quickly took off his shoe and threw it at Albus, who rubbed his head and got up to find his attacker. "Get over here Al, someone wants to give you a message."

Albus walked over to the little boy and told him to spill it. "Your brother wants me to tell you that umm.. this term will be hell for you because you did… well I don't know exactly what you did but he said to tell you he didn't forget about it." with that he scampered off as quickly as possible.

"I guess we'll have to watch out then." Al looked bored and reached for his trunk. "Come on, lets get dressed before Sky wakes up."

Skyler woke up to the sound of Scorpius and Albus getting dressed. Al was in his school pants already and in the process of getting his shirt buttoned but Scorpius was digging to the bottom of his trunk looking for his pants in his underwear. Skyler looked at Scorpius' toned back and smiled, she'd never really seen him in this light before, as more than a friend. His skin was like porcelain and when he got up she saw his fringe falling over his silvery eyes. He pulled on his pants and started to get his shirt on when she let out a sigh and smiled at the sight before her. Scorpius turned around, alarmed, and looked at her with wide eyes.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to see you in your underwear." Skyler laughed and sat up. "I should probably get dressed too."

Scorpius and Albus turned red and turned around.

"Can you pass me my robes and stuff? They should be on the top." Skyler took off her hoodie and kicked off her shoes, then she was handed her stuff by a blushing Scorpius and started to take off her shirt before Scorpius could turn back around. Red came to his cheeks and his eyes went wide again before he turned around. Skyler just laughed and kept getting dressed.

Later that night in the common room the three of them went over to talk to Monica and Kailee.

"Hey, what was with the dirty looks on the train?" Al inquired while setting himself down in between them on the floor.

"Oh, haha, I didn't give you any dirty looks… I… um.." Kailee stuttered and looked up at Monica. They took off without saying anything else and left the others looking fed up.

The boys returned to their dorm and Skyler slipped up after them. The door was silent when they walked into the room. Mason was there (as usual) and there was a boy in Ravenclaw robes not facing them laughing. Before anyone knew what was happening, Mason was leaning in and kissing the boy and grabbing at his hair. Albus sat on his bed and saw the face of the mysterious male, it was Lucas. Someone loudly cleared their throat and Lucas and Mason jumped away from each other.

"Oh, hey guys!" Lucas greeted them merrily, his eyes lingering on Albus, who saw the apologetic look in his eyes. Al had no idea why it was there but he liked the fact it was. "I should probably go, but I was wondering if you guys wanted to hang out tomorrow afternoon."

"We all have quidditch practice," Scorpius gestured to Mason and Skyler. "but Albus is all yours."

Albus blushed when Lucas beamed at him with twinkling eyes. "Hear that Albus? You're all mine. I can drag you around all afternoon! But I should leave, see you later."

Lucas strode out of the door and left a silent room.

"You aren't allowed in here Skyler." said Mason plainly.

"You should probably be used to my certain disregard for rules by now." Skyler said, reclining on Scorpius' bed. She turned to Scorpius, who was laying beside her and whispered: "Your pillow smells so nice." earning a kiss and a sigh from Albus.

"Oh and one thing, explain why you were kissing Lucas." Scorpius looked confused.

"Umm… well it was sort of a test you see… a test to see whether umm… well… whether he likes guys." Mason looked ashamed but kept talking when he saw the still expectant looks on their faces. "I mean, I'm bisexual. I know I should have told you but I was scared you'd kick me out of the room or something. But he just wanted to see if he liked guys too, so he came to me."

"Ok, that's cool. You should have just told us though, we're both fine with that sort of stuff." Scorpius smiled at Mason warmly.

"I should just stay here the night." Skyler snuggled down into the green duvet and squeezed her eyes shut. "Just for a night Scorp, you can sleep with Al if you don't want to sleep with me."

Mason winked at Scorpius who looked slightly pink at the suggestion. Albus was giggling silently into his robes. "Just sleep in your bed tonight, maybe we can have a slumber party some other time."

"Fine." she said in a whiny voice before trudging to the door. Scorpius went after her and came back about a minute later with a shy smile gracing his sharp features. "I love having a girlfriend." was his final statement before collapsing onto his bed face down, smiling at the pillows.

Their first day back was uneventful and by lunch most people were sick of school already but Albus had Herbology then Care of Magical Creatures so it was a pretty good afternoon. Albus was also looking forward to spending the afternoon with Lucas. Albus felt a small shiver go down his spine when he thought of Lucas but he also thought about what happened last night when he walked into his room. _Why am I still thinking about Mason and him? It isn't like it worries me who he kisses, does it?. I don't have any reason to, it isn't like we're going out or anything. I mean, I don't even like him that way, he's only a friend._

Shaking misleading thoughts about who he liked out of his head, he headed down to the greenhouses.

After class had finished he walked slowly to the dungeons to dump his books before going to meet Lucas near the Entrance Hall. Lucas was leaning against a marble statue and holding his wand over his hand. When Al got closer he saw that the thing in his had was a large flower, and it was changing colour every few seconds.

"Hey Albus!" Lucas pulled the smaller boy into a bone-crushing hug and handed him the now yellow flower. "Come on, lets go and make a snow man. There isn't that long until the snow melts so we can't waste another minute." Soon Albus was being dragged through the doors of the hall and out into the cold air of the grounds. His feet slid on the snow and an icy wind whipped his face but his hand felt completely warm in Lucas'. Finally the pair arrived in a small bunch of trees near the lake.

Albus gasped when he was pushed into the snow, a cold trail of snow trickled down his back. "Ugh! Lucas!" the brunette groaned and pulled Lucas down beside him.

"What? The snow is so nice."

Albus couldn't keep the smile off his face, even though he was supposed to be angry.

"Hey Lucas, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Al."

"I was just wondering, are you and Mason, like, together?" Albus flushed pink and played with the clasp of his cloak.

"No… that was just a test… I'm sure Mason told you. Why is that Albus?"

"Well, it's just… I sort of have a little bit of a crush on you but I didn't think I liked guys." Al blurted out all of this in what seemed like less than 3 seconds.

"Oh… I see…" Lucas was siting up and Albus cursed himself for being so forward. "But we can easily test that theory."

"What?" before Al knew what was happening Lucas had pulled him from the snow and their faces were centimetres apart. Clouded breath crowded the air between them and green eyes looked into blue and after a minute of staring at each other Lucas pulled the other boy close and kissed him tenderly. They only split apart when they started getting out of breath. Both of their hearts were beating quickly and they were both flushed. "Why do you have to be in Ravenclaw?"

"What do you have against my house?" Lucas smiled.

"We can't do this all the time, like in the common room after dinner." Albus looked embarrassed "If this is… a thing."

"Of course it is Al, but we can still hang out in the afternoons when you don't have homework. Don't worry, we'll work something out. But lets go back to the castle, you're shivering." Lucas kissed the brunette on the forehead and they started the slow walk back to the castle.

"Keep me warm, please." Al shivered just after he said this, giving it some effect.

"Oh and I forgot to ask you one question." Lucas gave Albus a cheeky look "Will you be my boyfriend Albus Severus Potter?"

"Yes" came a muffled answer against his chest.

When the pair got closer to the castle, they spilt apart but still walked closer together than necessary towards the library. It wasn't crowded in there but a group of Gryffindor girls were making a right racket with a game of exploding snap. Madam Pince was scowling at them over a pile of books on her desk. Albus found a spot across the other side of the library, as far away as he could get from those girls. Lucas took a firm hold of Albus' hand when they sat down in the aisle.

"Gryffindors give me headaches."

* * *

Skyler was standing on the pitch at the end of practice leaning on Scorpius and talking to Mason when the captain, Fallaway, walked up and smiled at Skyler before looking at Scorpius with slight disgust. "Good job today Skyler, and you need to work on your turns Malfoy." Fallaway pulled the blonde girl into a tight hug and looked over her shoulder to scowl at Malfoy.

"Thanks Andrew and I'll make sure he works on it." Skyler beamed at him then waved and turned to walk back to the castle hand in hand with Scorpius. Andrew scowled at Scorpius' back and kicking at the grass grumbling something about the poor conditions of the pitch.

The group of Slytherin players burst into the common room laughing and most of them rushed up the stairs back to their dorms to get their homework finished. The common room was almost deserted except Blade Zabini, Monica and about six third years sitting in front of the fire. When the Skyler saw the pair of fifth years they were just getting up to leave. "We're meeting up with Blake and Kailee. They've been hanging all afternoon and we promised to have a snow fight about now. You guys should come."

"We just came from practice, we're both pretty tired. Saturday maybe?" Scorpius smiled when Blade nodded. "Tell Blake I said hello, and also tell him Slytherin are going to win the house cup again." Scorpius winked at Blade and said goodbye to them when they left, then turned to Skyler. "I'll just go put my broom away then we can hang out here, or we could always go to the library? That's always good, plus we have that potions essay and I'd like to finish it before next week."

"Meet you back down here in five minutes then?"

"Yeah, see you soon."

Scorpius ascended the stairs to the dorms in silence and entered the room as quietly as possible in case Mason was having a pre-dinner nap, but he didn't hear any snoring. He heard a distinct giggling sound coming from Albus' bed, and as he got closer he heard a second person giggling like a school girl. Then came shrieks of "Stop! Stop!" in a high pitched voice Albus used when Scorpius was tickling him. Slowly Scorpius made his way over to the green four-poster and grabbed the curtains of the bed but he hesitated before he pulled on them. The moment he tugged the curtains away from the bed he knew he probably should have left them closed.


	9. Chapter 9

**Short chapter, blah blah blah, I'm sorry, blah blah blah, enjoy yourself.**

When he pulled back the curtains he found Lucas and Albus laughing and squirming on the bed, shirtless. Lucas was holding Albus down and tickling him while Albus shrieked and wriggled in an attempt to break free of the steel grip the other boy had on him. They both froze when they saw Scorpius staring at them. "Well I guess we should tell him, he is your best friend after all."

"Hey Scorp. Have a good practice?"

"Looks like you've been practicing something as well." Scorpius smirked. "I was kidding Al, but I didn't really expect that all I had to do was leave you two alone for an afternoon, then the magic would happen and you'd get together. I'm like a matchmaker!"

Scorpius laughed to himself and dump his things on his bed. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get changed so if you could cease your kissing for a moment, that would be wonderful."

"We weren't even-!" Lucas cut him off by putting a finger to his lips and pulled the curtain closed again.

"Ok, I'll be out of here in a minute, just let me get changed jeez!"

Scorpius pulled on some fresh clothes and hurried from the room as soon as possible. "Don't hurt my Alby too much Lucas! I'm warning you!" Albus hated that pet name. It was written all over all of his things. His bag, the tags of his robes, Scorpius had even tied a piece of ribbon on the leg of Lopulus (his owl) and written "Alby's owl" on it.

So 'Alby' and Lucas enjoyed their afternoon without any more interruptions and Scorpius and Skyler did almost the same. Almost.

* * *

When the pair got to the Entrance Hall there was a group of older Gryffindors waiting with wands out and angry looks on their faces. James was among them and smirked at the two of them. "Well hello, fancy seeing you two here." James approached them, his smirk widening into some sort of malicious smile.

James got closer and closer to them, wand still gripping his wand tightly in hand. "Come outside with us, we're about to have a bit of a snowball fight." he then grabbed Skyler's hand and started to lead her outside. Before he had moved three steps he felt a wand pressed hard on his back. "Oh come off it Scorpius, it's just a game after all." James turned and smiled his most charming smile at them. Skyler, who had always gotten along reasonably well with James put her free hand on Scorpius arm. As soon as Scorpius had put away his wand they were lead outside. The wind whipped at the blonde boy's face and pressed his robes tight against his body, it tore through them and froze his whole body.

Skyler was still being dragged behind James. Suddenly, he turned and dropped her hand. "Now for the fight we promised you." he had his wand pointed at Scorpius and said _Levicorpis _loudly. There was laughter as Scorpius was hoisted up into the air by an invisible hand.

"I don't even care what you do to me, as long as you don't do it to Skyler." Scorpius shouted at the Gryiffindors over the howling of the wind.

"If you insist." One of James cronies laughed and pointed his wand at Skyler who quickly disarmed him. The next one was more successful. _Petrificus_ _Totalus_ and she was on the ground, stiff and unmoving. Scorpius shouted at them while trying to keep a firm hold on his pants.

"We didn't do anything to her that we did to you. Merlin, you're a bloody drama queen." James reasoned, still holding up his wand. "Well I think I'll take off now. See you later?"

James dropped Scorpius onto a thorny bush covered in snow and the group ran off carrying Skyler's stiff form. Scorpius tried to get up but several long thorns had found their way into his skin, making it hard to breathe and even harder to move without being in immense pain. When he finally found the strength to rise from the bush the group had disappeared into the forest. Scorpius was gasping for air and his hands were shredded, blood dripping onto the ground like red rain. Spots were dancing in front of his eyes and his he'd was spinning. Three bloodstained holes graced the front of his shirt, warm liquid ran down his front. He'd been left there by a bunch of idiots to die. Scorpius turned back to the hazy shape that was the castle and started stumbling towards it. There were a few foggy shapes that looked remotely human moving near the entrance and if he could just get to them - then everything started to lose colour, then shape, then he was gone. Laying in the snow facing the grey sky, wondering if he'd ever get back up.


	10. Chapter 10

**I've had some major writers block the last few months, it really sucks. I'm terribly sorry. 3 don't hate me please**

Waking up in the hospital wing was the last thing Scorpius expected. The sky outside was a dark purple, he must have been asleep quite a while. Bandages were wrapped around his hands and there was something purple and sticky on his chest. A woman who he soon identified as his mother was sleeping in an armchair next to his bed. His father was pacing at the end of his bed and when Scorpius sat up he froze and looked at him with piercing eyes.

"Scorpius." he breathed.

"Hey."

"I advise you don't speak too loudly, you'll wake up your mother and you know that'll be bad news for you." Mr Malfoy broke into a large nervous smile.

Scorpius laughed and tried to get up but was pushed down softly by his fathers hand. "How did I get here anyway? Last thing I remember is - never mind." remembering what happened to Skyler was the last thing he really wanted to do at the moment.

"It was Potter and Weasley." the man spat the last word with venom.

"Al and Rose?"

"No, the younger ones. What are they called?"

"Lily and Hugo?" Scorpius was puzzled by the fact that they would want to help him. In his third year he may have accidentally shoved Hugo down the stairs when he was coming back from the library and didn't see him over the mountain of books he was holding for Albus. Then in the summer he got blamed for putting dung bombs in Lily's pillow by James. He didn't get on the best with either of them anymore. "Where's Albus? I need to talk to him."

"He was told to wait outside while you slept, to let us see you first."

"Well I'm awake and I need to have a private conversation with him so if you would kindly leave and let him in, that would be fantastic." Scorpius looked over his fathers shoulder at the door then reached out a hand to wake his mother. After the initial squealing and sloppy kisses from his mother, he made some lame excuse about needing more rest and they left. Albus was sent in and rushed over to the bed smiling but he definitely seemed worried.

"Scorp! Are you ok? What happened? Nobody told me anything! Professor Sprite told me you were in the hospital wing after dinner, I came as quickly as I could but they wouldn't let me in because you were still unconscious." said Albus.

"Mate, calm down. I've never known you to talk so much." Scorpius pulled Al to sit down beside the bed. "Look, this time I have a question. Where's Skyler?"

"She's helping James with an essay in the Library. Don't worry, they're almost done I think plus they can't be out of the common rooms too much longer or they'll get caught by filch. He said you were cool with it and you went to play a game of quidditch with another friend." Albus looked confused then his expression changed back to worry, "Did you fall off your broom into a bush or something? There's a big cut on your forehead you know, its been bleeding in your hair. Wonder how she missed that, well she is getting pretty old after all - "

"Just stop talking for a second and let me tell you what really happened." Scorpius proceded to explain all that happened to himself and Skyler the for a while the two boys just stared at each other. When they came out of their temporary trance Albus looked confused.

"Frankie Longbottom said he saw James taking someone into the forest but he couldn't be sure who it was so I just brushed it off as one of his friends or something." Albus suddenly looked infuriated,

"I am going to kill him! I'll be back later Scorp." without another words of farewell Albus ran out of the room earning a furious looked from the matron.

_Why would he do that?_ thought Scorpius _And what did he do to her to make her hang out with him? I mean they get along fine but they would never hang out like that if they didn't have to._

Scorpius spent most of his time over the next three days either talking to Albus, who came whenever he could, or thinking about what happened. Skyler came to visit twice in that time, each visit consisted of her avoiding his eyes and her hurrying off as soon as she could.

Scorpius remembered something one the third night he spent in the hospital wing. Something quite vital to piecing the story together. Albus and Lucas were together, if you could call it that, and James wasn't exactly the most accepting person, so he was probably thinking it was something to do with the two people closest to him, therefore they needed to be punished for tainting his little brother.

Albus however spent his days wishing Scorpius would get out of the hospital wing. When he finally did they headed straight to the common room to get Skyler.

"I hope she's there," said an anxious Albus, "Otherwise I have to actually face my brother."

"Why would that be so bad?"

"Because… well… when you left Lucas suggested going to the library because he wanted to finish some assignment for Flitwick." Albus was blushing when he started a new sentence. "Anyway we were in the library and Lucas got a little… distracted while we were looking through the shelfs on advanced charms and started kissing me," he was as red as a beetroot by this point. "and he got a little carried away and pushed me up against the shelves and then James came round the corner and… you get the picture, it wasn't pretty."

By the time the story was finished they were almost all the way to the common room but when they turned the final corner they were bombarded by a crowd of students rushing out of the common room. Most of them were fourth years and below but there were at least three seventh years.

The only words they gained from all the murmuring and whispering the people were doing were "that blonde girl", "Malfoy" and "the gay one". The first few people spotted them ad stopped dead in their tracks. Soon the whole bunch of twenty to thirty people were gawking at them. Someone whispered "that's them" then the whole lot of them started firing questions at the two stunned boys.

"Run, before they start scratching." Scorpius whispered, "I'll deal with them don't worry."

"You sure?"

"Run!"

Albus tore up the steps just as Scorpius was enveloped in the mass of people. All Scorpius knew was that if he didn't calm them down, he'd be suffocated pretty quickly. So he started yelling. "Hey!" it had no effect what so ever. They pushed him to the ground and his head landed with an audible crack on the stone floor. Most of them had backed off by this stage because no one really wanted to be blamed for hurting someone just out of the hospital wing.

"Get off of me!" Scorpius shouted as he pushed away a first year that had landed on top of him.

One of the seventh years shouted "Get off him! How are we going to ask him anything if he gets squished by you lot?" while the others pulled off everyone else.

When Scorpius was standing straight and catching his breath a fourth year girl with honey coloured hair and said quietly so only he could hear "I don't think you're that bad a Slytherin just because you're friends with a gay person, I mean Albus is really nice, who wouldn't like him?" Scorpius was shocked. This meant James let it leak that Al was gay. Dear Merlin.

"If you please could we leave this questioning until later? I'd first like to get into the common room and relax for a bit." Scorpius shouted at the group which slowly dispersed. Before the girl could leave though, Scorpius grabbed her arm and whispered "You're coming with me." When he dragged her away her two friends both said something along the lines of "You're so lucky" and left towards the common room. The other two however headed up the stairs.

"We need to find Al. Come on." Scorpius dragged the girl away from the dungeons as swiftly as possible heading for the Entrance Hall.

"Hey, why do you need me? We don't even know each other. And by the way I can follow you without your fingernails digging into my arm." said the girl.

"Sorry. Well, I need you so I can find out what this whole fiasco is all about and what's your name?" Scorpius turned to her and let go of her arm.

"My name is Annalise. I know yours is Scorpius Malfoy but I don't get what you need me for, surely Albus would have heard something about it." she said, blue eyes looking confused.

"Ok well Annalise I don't really know but you can tell us both when we find Al." Scorpius grabbed her arm again and pulled her towards the Entrance Hall.

The pair ran through the corridors and got to the Entrance Hall within minutes, Annalise slightly panting. Albus was hiding behind a marble statue looking terrified. When he saw his friend his face broke into a smile. "You're alright!" Scorpius was soon being hugged so tightly he was sure he could hear at least three of his ribs cracking.

"Yeah I am alright but you're a bloody coward Albus Severus Potter. The Slytherin is showing through more every day, I'm so proud. This is Annalise, she's going to help us work out what is going on with this whole situation." Scorpius said after he pulled out of the bone-crushing hug. Albus looked at her skeptically as if daring her to say something offensive. "She was one of the ones that helped me not get squashed into a patty." Albus still looked skeptical but held out his hand to her anyway. Anyone who helped his best friend would have to be at least bearable.

"Shall we go to the library so I can explain what exactly happened to get you tackled by a group of people straight after you got out of the hospital wing?" Annalise smirked and leant against the wall. Scorpius recognised her from somewhere. That was it, she set off a bunch of fireworks in Hogsmeade last time they went. Her hair hung in plaits and a bunch of bands were tied to her wrists, visible because she'd rolled up the sleeves of her robes. "Well come on then, I've got to take some books back to the library anyway."

Albus approached her and looked at her through squinted eyes. "I know you, you're a self-proclaimed trouble maker. I would have thought reading would tarnish your bad girl reputation."

"I'm not that bad, and I didn't say anything about being a trouble maker that firework thing was a dare. And I like reading alright? Big deal. Even if it was only for some Potions homework." Annalise was blushing badly and looked quite vulnerable, being shorter than both the boys by a few inches.

"What's with the rolled up sleeves and wristbands then?" Albus smirked and stepped closer to the girl "Trying to look _cool._"

"I happen to like wristbands and I don't like long sleeves. I mean really, even if I wanted to look cool I wouldn't be able to with this hair style." Annalise was cowering slightly, blue eyes wide. "Shall we go?" She slipped sideways and started to walk as fast as possible towards the library. Scorpius scowled at Albus and hissed something under his breath.

The library was definitely not full, but not exactly empty, with a few students milling around the shelves here and there. They chose a table as far away from Madam Pince as possible, even though she was old and frail and probably needed a hearing aid to hear anything it was best not to risk it since her temper only got worse over time.

"Well come on then." Albus said impatiently.

"You might want to get comfortable." Annalise was already sprawled on her chair looking quite sleepy.

"Fine." Scorpius who was sitting on a two seater with Albus laid down and put his head on the other boys lap and feet over the arm rest.

"So this is why people think you're gay too." Annalise said, mostly to herself.

"Yeah, that's why I go around snogging my girlfriend." Scorpius looked like he was getting impatient but said nothing else.

"Yeah, I'm so in love with my best friend even though I already have a…" Albus blushed deep scarlet and stared around the room for a moment. "Why am I even saying this? I don't even know you."

Annalise looked completely abashed and quietly said "Sorry."

"Albus, just say you have a boyfriend, it isn't that big of a deal. You should be proud of that fact." Scorpius had his eyes closed and his hands folded over his stomach.

"But I don't even know if that's what it is." Albus hissed urgently and looked up at Annalise to make sure she couldn't hear but she apparently wasn't listening but immersed in a thick book she had produced from her bag.

"We've been snogging for weeks and I'm completely obsessed with a certain black haired fifth year, of course thats what it is. It might even be love, we should get married." Albus heard the voice come from behind him and turned his head to find Lucas standing behind them. He was looking dreamy, his blue eyes staring nowhere in particular and his sandy hair falling over her eyes. When green eyes met blue Lucas looked a little scared. "Sorry, it was just a joke I promise, I won't go around flaunting our engagement."

Albus blushed and looked at the blonde boy resting on his lap. Lucas soon realised Scorpius was laying there and felt a little protective. "Hey, that's my territory mister." Scorpius simply replied by rolling over and ignoring him completely.

"We're actually kind of in the middle of something, Lucas." said Albus as sweetly as he could. "I'll see you later, alright?"

Lucas seemed to be calculating his answer when he bent down and placed a lingering kiss on his lips, after whispering "Love you" in his ear he left a very embarrassed Albus behind and exited the library.

"Well I'd say he's your boyfriend Albus if he kisses you like that." Annalise said from behind her book. "Shall we get started then?"

**I'll try my hardest to write more I promise. Review and such. xx**


	11. Chapter 11

**I thought I'd be generous and give you another chapter before I went away. I'm sorry for my poor writing skills. **

**Cheers.**

Annalise shifted in her chair apparently getting more comfortable. "Well, the whole Albus loves Lucas rumour was spread by none other than that blonde girl you're so fond of Scorpius," Scorpius sat up straight and stared at her. "Yes, quite shocking now shall we move on?" Annalise looked a bit bored but kept going anyway. "So anyway, she told all the Slytherins about it and then eventually it spread to the rest of the school. I'm guessing James Potter had some part in helping it move along as well seeing as he was looking quite guilty indeed when the whole hall was talking about it."

"Jamie..?" Albus's face fell.

"Yes. Your dear brother did that but he does feel very sorry about it I promise you. I have an older sister in Gryffindor you see. I also have a twin brother in Ravenclaw and a little sister in Hufflepuff, so I'm very well connected you see." Annalise was absentmindedly pulling at her tie and suddenly spun to sit up, "As for your girlfriend, she's been hanging around Zabini, Brookston and Wzorek. Bit of a downgrade if you ask me. Apparently something happened to her that made her feel like she wasn't safe hanging around you guys. Can't think of anything that would make any sane person do that. I think she's mental that girl."

"You seem pretty mental as well if you ask me." Scorpius looked at her with a small frown.

"I do try," Annalise smiled her sweetest smile at him and then started straightening her vest. "I love this vest thing we get to wear over our shirts. It's so cool."

"Wow, you really _are _lame." Albus quirked an eyebrow at her and received a wink in return.

"Indeed, too cool for my good really." Annalise sat up and reached for the book she was reading beforehand and put it back in her bag before turning to the two boys. "I have to go, I'll keep you posted if I hear anything new. Although I do tend to get distracted with… other things… so it'd probably be best to remind me every once in a while." After straightening her skirt and brushing off her front there was a swish of robes and she was gone.

"Should I even ask how she did that?" Albus looked over at his companion with a confused look on his face.

"I don't think you should."

A few hours later, Albus and Scorpius were walking into the Great Hall and spotted Annalise sitting with her face on the table, between a frizzy haired girl with tanned skin and her hair in a bun and another tanned girl with her hair dark hair in a pony tail. The pony tail girl was putting small sections of rubber band in Annalise's hair while the girl on her right side laughed historically at the ignorance of their friend. "Stop it, I will kill you later. That's a promise!" They heard her growl from her position on the table.

Smirking to himself Scorpius went up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Annalise?" The two girls looked up at him and burst out in laughter. Annalise looked up and hit the girl on her right in the arm and received an elbow in the ribs in return, groaning in pain she looked back at Scorpius.

"Can I help you?"

"Just a reminder."

"Oh, right."

"You have a big red mark on your forehead by the way." then he turned on his heal, leaving a slightly embarrassed girl behind.

Albus headed towards where Skyler was sitting and went to sit next to her. "Please don't sit with me Al, I'm so sorry but we can't be friends anymore." She whispered as he swung his leg over the bench.

"Explain why then. Give us both a reason." he whispered back, leaning closer to her.

"Common room, wait until everyone else has left and the I'll tell you."

Albus left quickly and silently, sitting down at the far end of the table and he was soon joined by Scorpius. Dinner was a silent affair and when Scorpius was finished, he left on his own claiming he had some homework to complete still. Albus didn't go back from dinner until the hall was almost empty. The boy finally left and wandered the corridors for a long while before he glanced at his watch and realised he would be late back to the common room if he didn't run. He ran through the school, pausing when he heard footsteps, then running again when they faded. By the time he got back to the stone corridor in which the entrance to the Slytherin common room lay it was a good fifteen minutes after he was supposed to be in there.

Albus slipped into the the common room and found it was almost empty except for a bunch of seventh years, one girl, he couldn't be sure what year she was in, who'd fallen asleep on the couch and the pair of people who he wanted to talk to. Scorpius looked up when he heard Albus enter and raised an eyebrow at him. Grey eyes fixed on him as he slowly walked over to the table and sat on a green beanbag he pulled along with him, how that got there, he didn't know exactly but wondered why anyone would put a beanbag in the middle of all the fancy furniture that decorated the room.

"Why are you so late?" said an exasperated Scorpius, finally going back to writing. Albus didn't answer for a while but just stared at his best friends handwriting. His writing was thin and elegant and looked even more so in deep green ink. "Answer me Al." the blonde boy said, almost threateningly.

"I got distracted and wandered around for a while. Just, you know, thinking and all that stuff people do when they aren't talking."

Just then the girl on the couch mumbled something in her sleep and turned over. They recognised her almost instantly, Annalise. She was facing them now and she had a few signatures on her face that were probably put there by her friends. Her hair was out and messy as ever, covering half her face with a curtain of golden hair. "Should we wake her up?" Scorpius suddenly piped up after a few minutes of staring at her in mild shock.

"We probably should."

They got up and walked over to her, trying not to attract the attention of the few people left in the room. They stood in front of her for a long minute, hesitating for as long as they could, wondering how they could do it without being too awkward. "Are you sure? Should we really do this? Cant we just let her sleep?"

Albus sat down in front of her on the table and waited for Scorpius to do the same, then reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder. He shook her a little and whispered her name quietly. Slowly, she came to and lifted her head. Then suddenly, she was wide awake.

"Oh shit, oh balls… dammit." Annalise said as she sat up.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius seemed quite alarmed now.

"Oh I was supposed to finish checking over my friends essay but I fell asleep… again." Annalise groaned and yanked a piece of parchment with purple writing on it off the table from in between the boys. The girl took some deep breaths and closed her eyes for a second. "It's ok, I can just do it in the morning if I get up early enough. I'll do it while they're all doing their hair or something ridiculous."

"We just saw you sleeping on the couch and thought you'd be more comfortable in your bed rather than spending the night in the common room."

"Well thanks I guess." She blushed and stared at her feet before turning with a swish of robes and disappeared up the stairs.

The pair of them shrugged it off and went to sit back where they were. About an hour passed and Albus had passed out with his face on the table. The seventh years that had been chatting over the other side of the common room finally retired, yawning and stretching as they went. The only people left now were Skyler, Scorpius and Albus, but he was asleep so he didn't really count just yet. Not until Scorpius started tickling him with the tip of his quill, then he woke with a start and let out a large sneeze.

Skyler glided over to them. "I'll explain this quickly and no you may not ask questions. I will not repeat myself and we cannot talk at all after this conversation. Do either of you have anything to say before I begin." her voice was shaky and the boys could see tears in her eyes. It must have been hard for her to accept that she couldn't talk to her best friends for five years anymore. Albus and Scorpius were going to everything they could to make that statement into a lie.

"We miss you Sky." Scorpius said simply.

She didn't reply so Albus filled the silence. "Please don't do this. Best friends for five years can't mean nothing all of a sudden."

"Is that all? Shall I continue? Okay then." Skyler took a long, shaky breath and continued. "I'm guessing we all know what James did to Scorpius and myself? Well after they took me away they put me down and waited until the spell wore off then they started laughing. When I asked what was funny and started getting angry they just said it was a big joke, nothing serious. They had sent Hugo and Lily to check on you incase you got hurt and that they were sorry if anything happened. When they left to go James stayed behind and said it wasn't his idea and he was sorry if anything happened to you. I was fine but pretty shocked at the fact it was only a joke."

At this point Scorpius went to say something in anger but Albus put his hand over the angry blond's mouth.

Skyler took another shaky breath as if this was extremely hard for her. "Just as I got up to walk back and find you someone came up from behind me and shoved me forward. When I spun to see who it was there were five people. I couldn't see their faces because they had their hoods up but there was one Slytherin, one Ravenclaw, a Hufflepuff and two Gryffindors. They started saying stuff about staying away from the people who meant the most to me otherwise everyone would end up hurt, and not just emotionally, then they all sent a stinging hex at me except one. I'm not sure which one it was because one stinging hex got me in the face and I couldn't see anything but the last person was out of their mind. They yelled _Crucio _and it was like mind-numbing pain. After a while they got tired of their little game and went back from where ever they came from."

Tears were cascading down her cheeks at a frightening pace. Scorpius got up to hug her and she returned it surprisingly. He was truthfully expecting her to hold up her hand and prohibit him from coming close but she snuggled into his shoulder and let out strangled sobs.

"I have to go, but I love you guys truly, I just can't risk this anymore I'm sorry." Skyler broke into a fresh waves of sobs and reached out a hand to touch Albus. "I should go to bed. Bye guys. We can hang out in summer, just not at school. I'm sorry, I hate this." She kissed Scorpius on the cheek and gave Albus a quick squeeze before walking slowly to the stairs and going up to her dorm.

Albus sighed and put an arm around Scorp's shoulders. "You're hating this aren't you?"

"We're in the worst situation anyone-"

"-could possibly think of." Albus finished the sentence and went to grab their things.

**Ooooooohhh, angst! Review and such if you please. **


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